Prior to his 30-year career in development, alumni relations and advancement, Shell served as press secretary to U.S. Rep. Ed Bethune of Arkansas and as a newspaper reporter at the Log Cabin Democrat, as well as an executive with the Conway Corporation, a public utility company. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Hendrix College.
Shell joined Stanford in 1998 as senior associate dean for external relations and in 2000 was named chief operating officer at Stanford Law School. In 2003, he joined the Office of Development as associate vice president and was promoted to vice president for development by then President John Hennessy in 2005. Since 2016, he has also overseen Stanford’s Office of Special Events and Protocol (OSEP).
Current role