Rod Lehnertz is the senior vice president for Finance and Operations at the University of Iowa, with responsibility for most non-academic operations of the university. Additionally, he represents the institution as its university architect.

Prior to his senior vice president role, which began in 2014, Lehnertz was the director of Planning, Design and Construction in Facilities Management. His responsibilities included campus master planning, capital project management, and campus space management. He started at the University of Iowa in 1994 as an architect and project manager. As university architect, a primary task for Lehnertz was the recovery of the campus following the 2008 devastating $700M flood event. Due in large part to involvement associated with the transformation of the UI campus after the disaster, Lehnertz was named Iowa City’s 2013 Person of the Year by the Iowa City Press-Citizen. In 2006, Lehnertz co-authored The University of Iowa – Guide to Campus Architecture, a book celebrating the many notable building designs on the UI campus. A second edition, which included the campus emergence from the 2008 flood, was published in 2016. 

Born and raised in Iowa City, Lehnertz received his degree in architecture from the University of Kansas in 1990, and his executive MBA from the University of Iowa in 2002. He is a licensed architect and a LEED-accredited professional. Beyond his institutional responsibilities, Lehnertz sits on the board of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library Foundation and, as a “spare-time hobby” serves as a public address announcer for numerous UI Athletics events. Rod and his wife, Blanca, have three children; all Hawkeyes, continuing a family tradition that dates back to World War I.