Larry Richards has been appointed interim chancellor of Indiana University East, university officials have announced. He will take over from Chancellor Nasser Paydar, who has led the campus since 2007 and who has taken a new leadership role at IUPUI.

Richards currently serves as executive vice chancellor for academic affairs and professor of informatics and management at IU East. Pending approval by the IU Board of Trustees, he will become interim chancellor on June 15.

A nationwide search for a new chancellor will begin this summer, with the goal of having a new chancellor in place by July 1, 2013.

“Chancellor Paydar leaves behind a truly impressive legacy at IU East,” said John Applegate, executive vice president for university regional affairs, planning and policy. “I am confident that Interim Chancellor Richards, who is highly respected by the campus and community, will continue that good work, and that a new chancellor will build on that foundation.”

Paydar was selected to serve as executive vice chancellor of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis after a national search, IUPUI Chancellor Charles R. Bantz announced Monday. Paydar succeeds Uday Sukhatme, who is leaving to become the provost at Pace University.

Richards, whose academic background is in engineering, business management and operations research, has served as vice chancellor and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs at IU East since 2004.

“The task for this coming year is to continue the momentum that has been building for the past five years under Nasser Paydar so that a new chancellor will inherit a four-year and graduate institution whose vision of growth, academic excellence and innovation is still intact,” Richards said. “I look forward to working with all the faculty and staff, the students and the community to achieve that goal. It will be a great challenge to fill the shoes left by a leader of Nasser’s caliber. I thank President Michael McRobbie and Executive Vice President John Applegate for the opportunity.”

Richards’ research interests include cybernetics and systems theory, policy-level decision making, and social design/change. He served as founding dean and professor in the School of Management and Aviation Science at Bridgewater State University in Bridgewater, Mass., and founding chair and professor in the Department of Engineering Management at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va.

He has a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Maine, master’s degrees in aeronautical systems from the University of West Florida and business administration from Mississippi State University and a Ph.D. in operations research from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

He has served as president of the American Society for Engineering Management and the American Society for Cybernetics. He received the Norbert Wiener Medal from the American Society for Cybernetics and was named a fellow of the American Society for Engineering Management.