Robert Winton Mendenhall (born November 18, 1954) is an American educational technologist best known as the president from 1999 to 2016 of Western Governors University (WGU).

WGU is a private, non-profit, online university offering competency-based undergraduate and graduate degrees in Business, Teacher Education, Information Technology, and Health Professions, including Nursing.

From 1980 to 1992, he was a founder, president, and CEO (from 1987) of Wicat Systems, Inc., a publicly traded company which was a leader in providing computer-based curriculum, instructional management and testing to schools, and technology-based training to government and industry.

On July 15, 2017, Mendenhall was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by Western Governors University.

[8][9] In 2012, Mendenhall testified to the United States Senate Higher Education Committee regarding innovations in college affordability.

In 2011, Ernst & Young granted Mendenhall the Utah regional award in its Entrepreneur of the Year program in the Technology and Education category.

For his work in leading and developing WGU, Mendenhall was selected by the Higher Education Policy Institute and Council for Adult and Experiential Learning to receive the 2012 Virginia B. Smith Innovative Leadership Award.