James Applegate, director of the Illinois Board of Higher Education, on Friday announced he will resign in February to pursue other opportunities in higher education.

Applegate, who began working as the board’s executive director in February 2014, announced his resignation in IBHE’s bi-weekly report. The state paid Applegate an annual salary of $200,000.

In the report, the 65-year-old thanked his staff for helping bring in “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in grant funds and developing “partnerships with numerous national organizations to support improvement in policy and practice.”

“All of this has been done in partnership with the leadership of our colleges and sister higher education agencies,” Applegate wrote in the report. “They all work tirelessly and creatively to protect our students, especially the most vulnerable during this very difficult time for Illinois higher education.”

Before joining IBHE, Applegate served as vice president of the Lumina Foundation, which calls itself the nation’s largest private foundation focused on increasing success in higher education in the U.S.

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