MIAMI — The Florida International University Board of Trustees on Monday selected Kenneth Jessell, the interim president, as the university’s next president with a compensation package of nearly $1 million.
“I’m very emotional,” said Jessell, 67, right after he got picked. “It’s a little bittersweet because I lost my mother on Friday.”
The FIU Board of Trustees unanimously voted to name Jessell as FIU’s sixth president. The board also signed off on an annual base salary of $650,000 and a performance-based bonus of $175,000. His total compensation package came out to $996,081 — just under $1 million, despite two trustees who wanted to raise it to over $1 million.
The Florida Board of Governors must confirm the appointment, likely during its Nov. 9-10 meeting at the University of South Florida in Tampa. At that point, Jessell would become the top executive of the largest public university in South Florida, managing about 56,000 students and about 8,000 faculty and staff.
Although the last stretch of the process turned predictable once the FIU Presidential Search Committee advanced him as the lone candidate for the post, Jessell said he never expected any of it.
“I was not intending to be here,” he said Monday during the Board of Trustees meeting.
In January, after former President Mark Rosenberg suddenly quit when a woman who worked in his office accused him of misconduct, the FIU Board of Trustees scrambled and tapped Jessell to fill the spot. When the presidential search began, Jessell vowed not to apply, but then said he enjoyed the job so much that he did.
Jessell had been FIU’s chief financial officer and vice president for 13 years. Before that, he worked for more than 25 years at Florida Atlantic University, a state university in Boca Raton.
Rosenberg, 73, will return to the university in the spring semester, earning about $377,000 to teach one class per semester. He took a one-year paid sabbatical since resigning at the end of January, continuing to collect his $502,578 salary.
On Oct. 6, the search committee approved two compensation packages: a high one totaling $1,181,181 and a lower one totaling $910,581, after comparing data with other universities. On Monday, the board approved a package in the middle that ended up short of $1 million.
Trustee Marc Sarnoff, a partner in the Miami office of the Shutts & Bowen law firm and a former Miami city commissioner, recommended to increase Jessell’s pay at the meeting Monday.
“When you have somebody that is this capable, when you have someone who has done what he has done, I’d like to advocate to at least get him to across the million-dollar threshold,” Sarnoff said. “I think this man merits it. I think he’s a million-dollar man.”
Trustee Carlos Duart, the founder and CEO of CDR Enterprises Inc., agreed with Sarnoff: “I do believe Jessell warrants it. This is the man that I believe is going to lead FIU into the future.”
Jessell earned $457,302.65 in his former position as CFO. As interim president, he had a $503,000 one-year contract. His new contract would run until 2025.
Roger Tovar, the chair of the search committee and vice chair of the board, said he wished he could pay Jessell more, but abstained from it.
“I think it’s important to stay under a million dollars,” he responded, “as a message to the faculty and staff that we’re aware that there are people who for numerous years have not gotten raises.”
The tables were organized in a large square inside the Graham Center Ballroom on the main Modesto A. Maidique Campus near Sweetwater. Jessell sat solo on one side of the square, looking out to trustees and to other university staffers on the other three sides.
Trustees asked Jessell how to improve fundraising, how to balance the budget and how to approach virtual versus in-person teaching, among other topics.
Jessell talked about valuing academic freedom and shared governance with faculty and staff, nurturing students through athletic and other events, and moving FIU from No. 72 to among the top 50 public universities by 2025, ranked by U.S. News & World Report.
After the interview, he recalled a recent memory with his mom before she died.
“It was funny because she knew what was going to be happening, and she asked me last Sunday, ‘Can I have your business card?’ And I said, ‘Absolutely.’ So I gave her my business card, and it said ‘interim president’ on it, and she said, ‘Oh, I don’t want this one. You can have it back. I want the one that says president.’
“So, hopefully, she’ll be able to see that when I get the new business cards,” he said. “I know that she’s with me.”
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