University of Kansas Provost Neeli Bendapudi is pictured at Capitol Federal Hall in this file photo from June 2016.

University of Kansas Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Neeli Bendapudi has been named president of the University of Louisville, KU announced Tuesday.

She is scheduled to begin her new role at the public university in Kentucky in May.

Bendapudi has been with KU for the past seven years, in the role of business dean most recently before being named as KU provost.

KU’s provost and executive vice chancellor is second in command at the Lawrence campus, after the chancellor.

KU Chancellor Douglas Girod said he would name an interim provost in the coming days and would provide information about identifying a permanent successor in the coming weeks.

According to a story in the Louisville Courier Journal Tuesday afternoon, Bendapudi will be the first female president of the University of Louisville and will succeed James Ramsey. The Courier Journal says Ramsey was forced to resign as president in July 2016 “after he came under attack because of his lucrative compensation, secretive operating style and a series of scandals.”

Neeli Bendapudi meets with well-wishers after she is introduced as the University of Louisville's new president on Tuesday, April 3, 2018, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Bruce Schreiner)

Bendapudi, 54, was born and raised on the coast of South India, in the city of Vizag, state of Andhra Pradesh. She received her undergraduate and master’s degrees there before coming to KU, where she completed her doctorate in 1994. Bendapudi then worked as an assistant professor of marketing at Texas A&M and as a professor at Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business. She has also consulted for companies including Procter and Gamble, Deloitte and Touche and Cessna. She served as dean and H.D. Price Professor of Business at KU from 2011 until she took over the provost job in May 2016. Her predecessor as provost was Jeff Vitter, who left KU to become chancellor at the University of Mississippi.

As dean of business at KU, Bendapudi was instrumental in raising private dollars to build KU’s $70.5 million new school of business building, Capitol Federal Hall.

In a letter to the KU community Tuesday, Girod said Bendapudi would be missed.

“Neeli brought unmatched enthusiasm to her work — the kind of enthusiasm that was contagious and inspired those around her,” he wrote. “She and her family are Jayhawks to the core, and their love and appreciation for this university knows no bounds.”

Susan Scholz, executive associate dean of business, described Bendapudi as having a “rock star kind of quality” that inspired others to join in her efforts. Bendapudi’s ability to rally disparate groups around a common goal, Scholz said, is perhaps best exemplified by Capitol Federal Hall.

“Her most lasting legacy is Capitol Federal Hall, because not only did she raise the money for it, she really came in with the vision of what the physical facility could do to elevate the school, and found architects and designers and people who really brought this vision to life,” Scholz said.

After former Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little announced in September 2016 her intention to step down the following spring, Bendapudi told the Journal-World that she was interested in the KU chancellor position, which ultimately went to Girod in May 2017.

Bendapudi announced her departure on her personal Facebook page Tuesday.

Neeli Bendapudi meets with well-wishers after she is introduced as the University of Louisville's new president on Tuesday, April 3, 2018, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Bruce Schreiner)

“After nearly seven great years at our Alma Mater, Venkat and I are moving on to our next adventure,” she wrote, referring to her husband, Venkat Bendapudi, a senior lecturer at KU’s business school. “We are headed to Louisville, Kentucky where I will be assuming the presidency of the University of Louisville. We are so thrilled at the opportunity to advance the promise of higher education in a vibrant, dynamic, urban environment.”

Asked at a news conference Tuesday in Kentucky how the University of Louisville could avoid future scandals, Bendapudi spoke of creating a culture of trust and openness.

“People talk a good game, but what will you allow to happen under your watch?” she said.

J. David Grissom, chairman of U of L’s board of trustees, said the search firm that assisted trustees identified Bendapudi as “a rising star.”

“She simply blew us away,” Grissom said of trustees’ meetings with her. “She has so much enthusiasm and background and passion.”

— Education reporter Joanna Hlavacek and The Associated Press contributed to this report.