Associate Vice Chancellor for Real Estate and Campus Enterprises

Gordon Merklein is the Associate Vice Chancellor for Real Estate and Campus Enterprises at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Merklein oversees the University’s Real Estate Operations, Auxiliary Services, Trademarks and Licensing, Energy Services, and Transportation and Parking departments.

Merklein most recently served as the associate vice chancellor for Real Estate Operations, providing oversight of the University’s real estate management, investment and development activities for direct real estate holdings, including The Carolina Inn, Granville Towers and Carolina Square, and management of the University’s 750,000 square feet of off-campus offices leases through the Property Office. In addition, he provided interim oversight of the University’s Auxiliary Services and Trademarks and Licensing operations from August 2019 through September 2021.

Merklein joined the University in February 2009 with more than 20 years of experience in all facets of commercial real estate. Merklein oversees real estate management, investment and development activities for direct real estate holdings by various entities of the University, including The Carolina Inn, Granville Towers and Carolina Square, and manages the University’s 750,000 square feet of off-campus office leases through the UNC Property Office. In addition, Merklein also provides oversight for the University’s Auxiliary Services and Trademarks and Licensing operations.

Previously, Merklein was the senior director of investments for Highwoods Properties, where he managed investment transactions and capital market activities for a portfolio of office, retail and industrial properties with a market value exceeding $2 billion. He has also worked at Cushman & Wakefield and EDAW (now AECOM).

Merklein is active in the Chapel Hill community, serving on the boards of Downtown Chapel Hill Partnership and Community Home Trust, as co-chair of the Interfaith Council Community House Capital Campaign, and as former board member of the Orange Water and Sewer Authority. He was the 2014 recipient of the Chamber of Commerce’s Citizen and Service Award.

Merklein holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University and a Master of City Planning from the College of Architecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology.