{shortcode-86956b7e7ab7a7013347a556e6d121d29b7451f2}

Sean Caron, managing director of Harvard Real Estate, will serve as the new vice president for campus services, the University announced Tuesday.

In his new role, Caron will oversee approximately 1,800 employees across Harvard’s operating service departments, including facilities management, sustainability upgrades, and diversity and inclusion workplace projects. Caron will step into his new office on Jan. 3, filling the vacancy left by Meredith L. Weenick ’90 after she was promoted to become the University’s executive vice president earlier this year.

Caron currently oversees asset, property, and construction management across Harvard real estate, which spans approximately 3.8 million square feet in 110 buildings.

“From his leadership of Harvard Real Estate, he has a deep understanding of the programmatic needs and objectives of the University’s Schools and units, effectively aligning services and real estate transactions with priorities across our Harvard community,” Weenick told the Harvard Gazette, a University publication.

Caron came to Harvard in 2019 after serving as the chief of property operations and chief of staff at the Community Builders Inc., a national nonprofit real estate developer founded in Boston. Prior to that, Caron spent five years as the director of public policy for the Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association, a nonprofit advocating for affordable housing in Massachusetts.

Weenick also praised Caron’s “innovative and thoughtful leadership” in light of Covid-19. During the pandemic, Caron helped to establish isolation housing for students and supported showering accommodations for unhoused individuals on Church St.

Caron told the Gazette that he has been inspired by “the depth of the talent and the strong commitment to making the world a better place” he has found at Harvard.

“I think on a personal level, whatever challenges you have going on in your life, if you look around Harvard, there’s someone — usually one of the best in the world — working to solve that challenge or to make the world a better place,” he said. “In this new role, I look forward to being an enabler of that work by providing the space and campus services that make it possible.”

—Staff writer Cara J. Chang can be reached at cara.chang@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @CaraChang20.