Search Committee Appointed to Recruit New UF President

July 17, 2012

Official Presidential Search Site

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — C. David Brown II, chairman of the University of Florida Board of Trustees, today appointed a search committee to recruit the 12th president of the University of Florida.

The committee comprises representatives from the board of trustees, faculty, students, administration, Florida Board of Governors and stakeholder groups. Brown will serve as chairman of the committee.

“These appointees are all distinguished leaders in their fields of expertise who have in common a commitment to the future of the University of Florida,” Brown said. “The committee represents the best of the Gator Nation, and I am confident they will succeed in our effort to find a visionary new leader for this great university.”

President J. Bernard Machen announced in June that his tenure as president will end next year and that he and Brown would agree on a date for his departure after a successor is appointed.

“President Machen’s tenure has been extraordinarily successful. Under his leadership we have built new state-of-the-art, sustainable educational and research facilities, significantly increased research funding and embraced innovation and entrepreneurship. Our endowment has doubled, and we have become more financially independent in an era of decreasing state financial support,” Brown said.

The committee will begin meeting in early August, and the Board of Trustees is expected to complete the selection criteria by the end of the month. Pledging that the committee will have an open process and seek input from UF stakeholders, Brown said candidates will be brought to campus to meet with trustees, search committee members, community leaders, and interested organizations and individuals. There is no deadline for completion of the search.

In an email to UF students, faculty, administrators, alumni, stakeholders and community and state leaders, Brown cited the attributes of the next president. They include intellect, integrity, strategic thinking, passionate advocacy, effective fundraising and experience in leading a complex organization.

“The University of Florida has much to offer to someone looking to lead a great institution,” Brown said. “UF is one of the nation’s premiere public, land-grant research universities, with an exceptional student body, prestigious faculty, major research and technology transfer enterprise and an academic health center. Together, the university and Shands and its affiliated teaching hospital have a total operating budget of 4.6 billion dollars.”

Brown has asked Marshall Criser, former UF president and first Board of Trustees chairman, and former Board of Trustees Chairs Manny Fernandez and Mac McGriff to serve as senior advisors to the search chairman. Also serving in that capacity are Dean Colson, chairman of the Florida Board of Governors, and Machen.

Search Committee members representing the current UF Board of Trustees are:

C. David Brown II, of Orlando is chairman of the search committee and chairman of Board of Trustees. He served as a member of the board from February 2004 to January 2008, and was reappointed in 2010. He also has served on the Florida Transportation Commission and was its chairman from 2000 to 2003. Brown, chairman of the law firm Broad and Cassel, received his bachelor of science and law degrees from UF and serves on several corporate boards.

Marshall Criser, III, of Miami has served as chairman of the board’s Governance Committee and chairs the Education Strategy and Policy Committee. He has chaired the Florida Chamber of Commerce and Florida TaxWatch, been a member of the Florida Transportation Commission and served on the executive committees of Enterprise Florida and the Council of 100. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from UF and is president of AT&T Florida.

Charles Edwards, of Fort Myers. Before joining the UF board, he was a member of the Florida Board of Governors and the Florida Board of Regents, which he chaired from 1989 to 1991. Edwards holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a law degree from UF. A sixth-generation Floridian, he is a lawyer and real estate broker.

Michael Heekin, of Atlanta earned his bachelor of science and law degrees from UF and served as president of Florida Blue Key. Heekin is president of Heekin Advisors, LLC, a consulting firm, and was a founding board member and first chief operating officer of WebMD.

Carolyn Roberts, of Ocala is chairwoman of the board’s External Relations Committee. Her long history of public service in higher education includes terms on the Florida Board of Governors and the Florida Board of Regents, both of which she chaired, as well as the Florida Board of Education. She is the founder and president of Roberts Real Estate.

Juliet Roulhac, of Plantation, earned her bachelor of arts and law degrees from UF, and has served has a member of the Board of Trustees for the University of Florida Law Center Association. Roulhac is a complex litigation and appellate lawyer with Florida Power & Light Company.

Other members of the search committee are:

Carlos Alfonso, of Tampa was appointed to the board upon its creation in 2001 and was elected chairman in 2011. Alfonso is a director of the Florida Council of 100 and the Florida Wildlife Foundation and served on the Florida Constitution Revision Commission. He earned a bachelor of design and a master of arts degree in architecture from UF. He is a founding principal and chief executive officer of Alfonso Architects and founder and CEO of Alliant Partners.

Dr. Cammy Abernathy, of Gainesville is the dean of the College of Engineering. Prior to being named to that position in 2009, Abernathy was associate dean for academic affairs and a professor in the department of material science and engineering at UF. She has a S.B. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and master’s and doctoral degrees from Stanford University. She is a fellow of AVS, APS and the Electrochemical Society.

Dr. Paul D’Anieri, of Gainesville is dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Named to the position in 2008, D’Anieri leads the largest college at the University of Florida. He came to UF from the University of Kansas, where he was associate dean for humanities. D’Anieri’s research has been centered on the international and domestic politics of the Soviet Union and, in addition to Germany and Ukraine, his studies have taken him to Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan.

Dr. Ben M. Dunn, of Gainesville is a distinguished professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Florida. Dunn received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Delaware in 1967 and a Ph.D. in bio-organic Chemistry in 1971 from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He joined the faculty of the UF department of biochemistry & molecular biology in 1974 and rose through the ranks to become a professor in 1988. He received the title of Distinguished Professor in 1998. His research interests include protein structure and function, especially for proteolytic enzymes of infectious organisms that are targets for drug design and discovery.

Dr. David Guzick, of Gainesville, is senior vice president for health affairs at the University of Florida. He also is president of UF&Shands Health System, president of Shands at UF, and serves as board chair for both Shands at UF and Shands Jacksonville. An internationally known expert in reproductive endocrinology who is a member of the National Academies’ Institute of Medicine, Guzick came to UF from the University of Rochester, where he was dean of the School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Dr. Harry Klee, of Gainesville is a professor in the UF department of horticulture sciences and plant molecular and cellular biology program, an eminent scholar and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. The Dickman Chair for Tomato Improvement and a member of the UF faculty since 1995, Klee previously worked for Monsanto. He earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1974 and a doctoral degree in biochemistry in 1980, both from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He currently studies flavor quality in fruits and vegetables to understand the chemical and genetic makeup of flavor.

Keith Koenig, of Plantation is former chairman of the University of Florida Foundation. He is president of City Furniture, a retail furniture company in South Florida. Koenig received his bachelor’s degree in business administration and his MBA from the University of Florida. Active in many South Florida community organizations, he has received local and national recognition, including the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the UF MBA Outstanding Alumnus Award, and the Furniture Retailer of the Year Award. He was made a Knight of St. Gregory by Pope John Paul II.

David Kratzer, of Gainesville is the vice president for student affairs at the University of Florida. He was named to that position in May after serving as interim vice president, associate vice president, and director of the J. Wayne Reitz Union. Kratzer retired from the Unites States Army in 2006 with the rank of major general after serving as a commanding general in both Afghanistan and Kuwait/Iraq.

Dianna Morgan, of Windermere was appointed as an original member of the UF Board of Trustees in 2001 and served as chairwoman from 2007 to 2009 after serving as its vice chair and Governance Committee chairwoman. She currently chairs the national board of the Children’s Miracle Network and is vice chair of Orlando Health. The former senior vice president of public affairs for Walt Disney World, Morgan serves on several corporate boards. She attended the University of Florida and graduated from Rollins College.

Danita Nias, of Gainesville is executive director and associate vice president of the University of Florida Alumni Association. Nias came to the University of Florida from the University of Maryland, where she was senior associate director of athletics. Nias began her professional career with the Xerox Corporation followed by 11 years in sales with Learning International in Greenbelt, Md.

Dr. David Norton, of Gainesville is vice president for research at the University of Florida and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He previously was associate dean for research in the UF College of Engineering and is a professor in the department of materials science and engineering. Norton came to UF in 2000 after 11 years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. His research interests primarily focus on electronic, photonic and magnetic thin film materials.

Dr. Scott Nygren, of Gainesville is a professor of English at the University of Florida. He chaired the Faculty Senate and served on the UF Board of Trustees in 2011-2012. He is past chairman of the Senate Policy Council on Research and Scholarship, of the Senate Policy Council on Academic Infrastructure, and of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences International Committee. Nygren teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in film history and theory and in video production, including courses in documentary film, avant-garde film and Asian film.

Ava L. Parker, of Jacksonville is a member and past chair of the Florida Board of Governors. During her first term, she held the positions of vice chair of the board and chair of the facilities committee. She is the president of Linking Solutions Inc. and a practicing attorney at Lawrence & Parker P.A. Parker is also currently serving on the Jacksonville Transportation Authority and has previously served on the University of Central Florida Board of Trustees. She received her bachelor’s and law degrees from the University of Florida.

Dr. Jack Payne, of Gainesville is the senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources at the University of Florida, where he leads the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. Prior to his current position, he served as the vice president for extension and outreach at Iowa State University and the vice president and dean for university extension at Utah State University.

Dr. Brian Ray, of Gainesville is the associate dean and director of the Heavener School of Business at the University of Florida and serves on the faculty as a lecturer in leadership and ethics. Ray received his Ph.D. in university administration from Florida State University and an M.B.A. from the University of Central Florida. He earned his undergraduate degree in finance from Stetson University. Ray also is a graduate of Harvard University’s Management Development Program. In addition to his work in higher education, Ray serves as a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve and is a recipient of the General Douglas MacArthur Leadership Award.

Lynda Tealer, of Gainesville is the senior associate athletics director and senior woman administrator for the University of Florida Athletic Association. She oversees the UF women’s athletics program, as well as the sports health and the human resources departments, while supervising the women’s basketball, gymnastics, lacrosse, softball and volleyball programs.

TJ Villamil, of Coral Gables and Gainesville, is student body president and a member of the Board of Trustees. A senior in the College of Journalism and Communications, Villamil attended Georgetown Preparatory in Bethesda, Md., and graduated from Gulliver Preparatory in Pinecrest. He was captain of the Gulliver Preparatory lacrosse team and student body president of the Gulliver Raiders.