FIU launches national search for its new president, Mark Rosenberg’s permanent successor
About two months after the abrupt resignation of Mark Rosenberg as president in late January, Florida International University has hired a Texas search firm and named 15 people to a committee to conduct a national search for the next president of South Florida’s largest state university.
After reached out to six search firms, FIU hired R. William Funk and Associates, a Dallas-based company that specializes in higher education recruitment. The firm plans to wrap up the process in the next three or so months.
FIU Board of Trustees Chair Dean Colson, a prominent Miami attorney, said FIU settled on Funk because of its experience with other R1 universities, referring to the highest tier of research universities, a Carnegie Commission on Higher Education designation held by fewer than 3% of all U.S. schools.
READ MORE: FIU president Mark Rosenberg abruptly resigns, stunning colleagues, students
Funk and Associates has recruited people for other FIU positions and has placed presidents at the University of Miami, Texas A&M University and Rutgers University, Colson said. The FIU presidency post commands a hefty pay package — both Rosenberg and Ken Jessell, whom FIU named as interim president after Rosenberg’s departure, earned or earn more than $500,000 a year.
“I’m confident that FIU and our Miami community will attract excellent candidates and we will find a world-class leader as our sixth president of FIU,” Colson said during a Tuesday Board of Trustees meeting.
Among the firms that FIU consulted with were Greenwood/Asher & Associates; Myers McRae Executive Search; SP&A Executive Search; and Storbeck Search/Diversified Search Group, FIU spokeswoman Madeline Baró said Tuesday. Diversified Search was involved in the first of two searches for Miami Dade College’s most recent presidency opening; last month, the University of Florida hired SP&A to lead its search for a new president.
FIU will pay Funk & Associates $175,000, Baró said.
Colson said he tapped board vice chair Roger Tovar, CEO of a private investment firm called RT Holdings, last week to chair the presidential search committee.
The committee met at FIU’s main campus in West Miami-Dade for the first time Tuesday afternoon. The committee is comprised of members of South Florida’s legal, business and educational communities, FIU professors, alumni and a student.
Rosenberg, 72, resigned Jan. 21, initially citing health concerns. Two days later, the Herald reported he had departed after nearly 50 years at FIU — the last 13 years as president — because the board launched an investigation related to allegations that Rosenberg made unwanted advances to a woman in her 20s who worked in his office.
After a two-and-a-half-month investigation conducted by an outside law firm, a March 3 final report concluded Rosenberg had “acted in a manner that was unprofessional and that he crossed appropriate boundaries in his behavior towards and interactions with a female subordinate.”
Now a board made up of five administrators will decide whether Rosenberg will return as a tenured faculty member.
In January, the board of trustees named Kenneth Jessell, 66, FIU’s CFO and senior vice president since 2009, as interim president. Jessell has said he does not want the permanent job as president.
Search process and timeline
FIU published its presidential search web page on Tuesday. The schedule of the meetings wasn’t immediately posted, but Tovar said the next gathering will take place at 3 p.m. April 25 on the Modesto A. Maidique Campus. FIU will live-stream all public meetings.
Next week, the search firm will meet with the FIU Foundation’s board of directors, the FIU Alumni Association board, the Faculty Senate Steering Committee and members of FIU Student Government.
The university will hold a forum from 10 a.m. to noon April 13, open to the community, to discuss the qualities and qualifications of the next president.
William Funk, head of the search firm, said he’s reluctant to specify a clear timeline because of unexpected delays. However, he said he estimates his team will finalize the choosing and vetting of the pool of candidates by mid-June.
The presidential search committee will then select eight to 10 candidates to interview, likely in person, for about an hour each. That list will remain confidential, in accordance to a new state law that shields candidates’ names until the finalist stage.
READ MORE: Florida Senate approves secrecy in early stages of university presidential search
The committee will advance two to four applicants to the full board of trustees, which will interview the finalists on campus sometime in July, Funk calculated. Then the contract negotiations would take place.
“Let’s hope the new president would be in a position to begin in the fall term here at FIU,” he said.
Who will pick next president of FIU?
The Florida Board of Governors, which oversees public universities in the state, mandates presidential search committees must include no more than 15 people who can speak for students, faculty and the community. Committees must include at least three board of trustees members and a representative from the Board of Governors.
On Tuesday, Colson announced the 15 members of the FIU presidential search committee:
▪ Roger Tovar — Vice chair of the FIU board and CEO of a private investment firm called RT Holdings. Tovar, who holds two FIU degrees, will chair the search committee.
▪ Cesar Alvarez — An FIU board member and past CEO and current chairman of Greenberg Traurig, the Miami-based law firm.
▪ Carlos Duart — Two-time FIU graduate and FIU board member. He is president of CDR Maguire, a consulting firm focused in engineering and emergency management.
▪ Patricia Frost — The Board of Governors representative. Frost, who spent 28 years as a teacher and principal in Miami-Dade County Public Schools, has served on the FIU board and the FIU Foundation board.
▪ Valentina Casanova — FIU student seeking a dual degree in biological sciences and psychology. She graduated from Coral Reef Senior High in 2019.
▪ Deanne Butchey — A finance professor at FIU’s College of Business, vice chair of the FIU Faculty Senate and a former associate dean of accreditation at FIU Business.
▪ Rebecca Lyn Toonkel — An associate professor of medicine at FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine.
▪ H.T. Smith — A law professor and founding director of the trial advocacy program at FIU College of Law. He was Miami’s first Black assistant public defender and first Black assistant county attorney.
▪ Richard Olson — Director of Extreme Events Research and professor and founding chair in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the FIU Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs. He’s an expert in disaster risk reduction and politics of disaster.
▪ Eric Eikenberg — A political and environmental policy expert who heads The Everglades Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to restoring the wetland.
▪ Jill Granat — The FIU Foundation’s board secretary and FIU alumna. She works as the general counsel, corporate secretary and chief compliance officer for Restaurant Brands International, a Canadian-American multinational fast food holding company.
▪ Gerald Grant Jr. — An FIU graduate, former FIU board member and trustee emeritus, and current member of the FIU Foundation board. Founder and president of G Financial Group, a financial services firm.
▪ Barbara Lagoa — A federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. She’s an FIU alumna and became the first Hispanic woman to be appointed as a justice of the Supreme Court of Florida.
▪ Albert Maury — President and CEO of Leon Medical Centers. He served on the FIU board for nearly 10 years and received the chair emeritus title. He earned two degrees from FIU.
▪ Claudia Puig — President and general manager of local media in Univision Communications. She served on the FIU board for 16 years, the last four as chairwoman. She holds the chair emeritus title.
A previous version of this story indicated FIU interviewed six search firms. The university consulted with six but only interviewed two companies.
