In a special meeting held Friday afternoon the St. Joseph School District Board of Education selected Eric Bruder to fill the vacant spot on the board left by the resignation of Dr. Dan Colgan last month.

The board narrowed the list of candidates down from 16 to five in a special meeting Tuesday evening.

All five candidates, Bruder, Matthew Brock, Jeff Bird, Mike Veale and Karen Hauser each answered questions posed by board members.

The questions ranged from how each candidate would have handled matters presented from audit findings to the qualities they would bring to the table.

The board of education voted unanimously to appoint Bruder to fill the vacant spot on the board.

Bruder is currently the President and CEO of Van Am Tool & Engineering in St. Joseph and the former Ex. VP and COO of WireCo World Group.

Bruder graduated with a B.S. in Electronics Engineering and a MBA from Rockhurst University.

In his letter of intent Burder said, “if appointed to the open Board of Education seat I would work with the other Board Members to focus on getting the District operating well and to rebuild community trust in order to push the district forward with proper funding to support initiatives and operating budgets going forward.”

Click here to view Bruder’s initial letter of intent