The University of South Florida (USF) Board of Trustees on Tuesday unanimously selected University of North Florida President Moez Limayem as USF’s next president, marking a homecoming for the university’s former business school dean.
Limayem, who served as the Lynn Pippenger Dean of the Muma College of Business at USF from 2012 to 2022, was chosen following a statewide search and will become the university’s ninth president pending confirmation by the Florida Board of Governors, which oversees the State University System and is scheduled to consider his appointment on Nov. 6.
“Dr. Moez Limayem is an outstanding leader who brings deep ties to the University of South Florida and the Tampa Bay region, valuable experience as a university president, and a strong record of accomplishments in student success, research excellence, and corporate partnerships,” said Board of Trustees Chair Will Weatherford.
Weatherford added that Limayem’s leadership would build on USF’s recent admission to the Association of American Universities and support major projects such as the planned on-campus football stadium.
Limayem has led the University of North Florida for the past three and a half years, where his tenure saw record enrollment, record first-year retention rates, and the highest percentage of bachelor’s graduates employed in Florida among all state universities.
Before his time at UNF, Limayem oversaw a period of fundraising at USF, helping secure more than $126 million in private donations for the Muma College of Business, including a $25 million gift from Pam and Les Muma, the largest individual contribution in USF history at the time.
“I am honored and humbled to be unanimously selected by the USF Board of Trustees,” Limayem said. “Serving as USF president would be the greatest honor of my professional life. My family and I love USF and the Tampa Bay region, and I am thrilled by the prospect of returning home.”
Limayem holds an MBA and doctorate from the University of Minnesota and previously served as associate dean at the University of Arkansas’s Sam M. Walton College of Business. His wife, Alya, is a biology professor and researcher at UNF.
