Paul Carttar, former chief operating officer of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, today was named as Kansas University’s executive vice chancellor for external affairs.

The appointment, which was announced by KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway, will be effective Oct. 4.

Carttar will lead KU’s public relations, communications, marketing and government relations efforts and coordinate the development and communication of planning priorities and initiatives spanning all of KU’s campuses.

He also will be KU’s senior officer overseeing relationships with external constituencies and for coordinating with the KU Athletics Corp., the Alumni Association and the Endowment Association.

Carttar, who reports to Hemenway, will succeed Janet Murguia, who left in March for the top post at the National Council of La Raza in Washington, D.C.

“Paul is a KU graduate with stellar management and planning skills,” Hemenway said in a prepared statement. “He has a national reputation as a strategic thinker with an entrepreneurial vision, honed by extensive experience in the nonprofit and for-profit sectors.

“Paul has the capacity to lead our external affairs efforts in a dynamic environment and to reaffirm that KU’s value grows from the success of our faculty and staff in teaching, research and service.”