Building community is the intention of the 12th president of the University of Saskatchewan.

Vince Bruni-Bossio was appointed to the new five-year term this past summer and stepped into the role on Jan. 1. He was born in Jasper, Alta., to newcomers who had immigrated from Italy.

Serving in many key USask department roles, Bruni-Bossio has been at the university for the last 18 years. He is also an alumnus of the Edwards School of Business and has a PhD from the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy.

Get daily National news

Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you’ll never miss the day’s top stories.

His vision is to lead with his strong sense of community.

“I think my leadership is focused on establishing a real through line of let’s come together, make this a great place to be, make sure everyone feels they can contribute, and let’s do great work,” he said.

He says it was quite a moment when he found out he was the next president while he was on holiday with his family in Victoria, B.C., and walking the Butchart Gardens.

“People always ask me, ‘What did you do?’ Well, I was in the gardens, so I went for a walk and thought of my life and that was the moment we walked around for the next couple hours and thought, ‘Wow this is going to be a really interesting change,’” Bruni-Bossio said.

Learn more about Bruni-Bossio and his goals and strategic plan for USask as president in the video above.