INDIANAPOLIS – Ivy Tech Community College President Thomas Snyder has been chosen as one of four keynote speakers at the 2014 National Benchmarking Conference.

The conference, led by the National Higher Education Benchmarking Institute, will take place from June 17 through 19 at the Johnson County Community College conference center in the Kansas City metropolitan area.

The event focuses on topics such as measuring costs, benchmarking student success in colleges and workforce training.

The National Higher Education Benchmarking Institute at Johnson County Community College is the first and largest provider nationwide of community college benchmarking and peer comparison services. Since 2004, over 450 community colleges have participated in the data-collecting and reporting process for its projects.

Snyder will join three other keynote speakers including Thomas Bailey, Director of the Community College Research Center at Columbia University; Tom Angelo, Assistant Provost, Director of the Center for the Advancement of Faculty Excellence and Professor of Higher Education at Queens University; and Joseph Hoey, EVP and Chief of Staff at Ashford University.

Snyder entered his current position at Ivy Tech in 2007 and has been nationally recognized for his achievements, including being named as one of the seven college presidents making a difference by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

President Barack Obama selected Snyder to serve on a Roundtable on Affordability and Productivity in Higher Education at the White House. Snyder also attended the first White House Summit on Community Colleges. Ivy Tech then hosted the largest U.S. Department of Education summit on community colleges as a follow up to the White House event.

Under Snyder’s leadership, Ivy Tech became a founding member of a coalition of community college systems and districts, Rebuilding America’s Middle Class. Ivy Tech has also doubled in enrollments and increased completion rates by record numbers since Snyder became president. He has recently written a book on higher education called The Community College Career Track – A Guide for High-Schoolers, Career-Changers, Parents and Advisors.

Snyder is a 1967 graduate of Kettering University with a degree in mechanical engineering and holds a master’s degree in business administration from Indiana University. He is the former chairperson and CEO/president of Flagship Systems Center and Delco Remy International, Inc.

Ivy Tech Community College is the state’s largest public postsecondary institution and the nation’s largest singly accredited statewide community college system serving nearly 200,000 students annually. Ivy Tech has campuses throughout Indiana. It serves as the state’s engine of workforce development, offering affordable degree programs and training that are aligned with the needs of its community along with courses and programs that transfer to other colleges and universities in Indiana. It is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and a member of the North Central Association.