Ex-CIA chief will lead Texas A&M

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- Former CIA Director Robert Gates has been hired as president of Texas A&M University after a 5-3 vote by the school's board of regents.

Gates, 58, will succeed Ray Bowen, who is retiring after leading the 44,000-student school for eight years.

The three-year contract pays $300,000 a year and can be renewed. Gates has said he was committed to stay for five years.

Gates was CIA director from 1991 to 1993, then worked as a consultant and lecturer. He was interim dean of the university's George Bush School of Government and Public Service from 1999 to 2001.