The University of North Carolina’s president, Erskine B. Bowles, picked an Exxon gas station as the venue for his hiring pitch for the chancellor’s job at Chapel Hill, the system’s flagship campus.

During a meeting several weeks ago in Greensboro, N.C., university officials discussed the job with H. Holden Thorp, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Mr. Bowles made his move on the drive with Mr. Thorp back to Chapel Hill.

As Mr. Thorp related in a university-published account, Mr. Bowles was pumping gas into their tank at the Exxon when “he leaned back into the car and said, ‘I know this probably isn’t the place where you thought you’d get the most important job offer of your life, but I’d like you to be the chancellor at Chapel Hill.’”

Mr. Thorp accepted. With his hiring, which was announced two weeks ago, the university has bucked a trend in which most major institutions choose established leaders as their chiefs. However, Chapel Hill is not alone in promoting from within, as it is following similar hires by Vanderbilt and Harvard Universities.

One of the key selling points for Mr. Thorp, an esteemed chemist, North Carolina native, and university alumnus, is that he is only 43 years old. The ideal tenure for a president is a decade, experts say. But only 8 percent of college chiefs are under 50, according to a recent Chronicle survey. —Paul Fain