Robert Buchholz will retire next year as associate vice president for facilities management and director of physical plant and will be followed by Tom Flood, now associate director of physical plant and director of landscaping and grounds.
Robert Buchholz, associate vice president for facilities management and director of physical plant, will retire next year after 10 years of service to Elon. He will be succeeded by Tom Flood, associate director of physical plant and director of landscaping and grounds, who will move into the role on June 1.
During the last decade, Buchholz has led and managed all aspects of landscaping, grounds, environmental services, physical plant operations, utilities and sustainability. In his role, he supervises a physical plant staff of more than 200 and is responsible for the operation and maintenance of a 636-acre campus that encompasses more than 3 million square feet of building space.
Elon’s campus has undergone extensive growth during Buchholz's years of service and he has been a major contributor to the university’s successful expansion. His engineering expertise has been vital as the university has built modern, sustainably designed structures while remodeling and maintaining historic facilities.
He will be followed by Flood, who joined Elon in 2003 and who served as interim director of physical plant in 2008. Flood is now responsible for landscaping and grounds, landscape design and construction, automotive and transportations services, and maintenance of the Law School campus and properties in Greensboro. He has more than 33 years of experience in facilities maintenance, planning, design and construction, and previously served 12 years in a variety of landscaping and physical plant roles at the University of Missouri. Tom has also been executive director of the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay, Maine.
Flood holds a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture from Colorado State University, an MBA from Elon University and Certified Educational Facilities Professional accreditation from trade group APPA. He has been a faculty member of APPA’s Institute for Facilities Management, teaching courses on facilities staffing, sustainability and landscape management for more than a decade. In 2013, he chaired and co-authored "Operational Guidelines for Educational Facilities: Grounds" published by APPA.