Reminiscences of a department chair

This paper relates the author´s experience as chair of the electrical engineering department at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). Within five years, the author was able to improve his department´s ranking, breaking into the top 20 in the country. He was able to achieve this by implementing a number of new programs and activities to improve the quality of students, reduce class sizes, recruit top faculty, and develop closer ties with industry, and increase the national visibility of the department.