LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) — Gov. Matt Mead says he has confidence in new University of Wyoming President Dick McGinity.

Mead says he intends to focus on the stability that McGinity offers the state's only four-year university rather than any concerns over how he was hired.

Mead says he's known McGinity from their service together on the state business council and thinks highly of him.

The UW Board of Trustees hired McGinity Thursday on a 9-3 vote without going through a formal search process and without following the board's own policy of consulting with faculty.

McGinity had been serving as interim president since Dec. 6 after former President Bob Sternberg resigned Nov. 14 less than five months into the job.

Mead's comments came in his annual address to the Wyoming Press Association Friday in Laramie.

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