The Florida Board of Governors is scheduled to consider Limayem’s appointment during its meeting on Nov. 6.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — University of North Florida President Dr. Moez Limayem has been selected as the next president of the University of South Florida, the university announced Tuesday.

The USF Board of Trustees unanimously voted to select Limayem as the university’s ninth president, according to USF. The university said his appointment is subject to confirmation by the Florida Board of Governors.

Current USF President Rhea Law announced back in February that she would be stepping down once a successor was named. Law, an attorney who had longstanding ties to USF, became interim president of the university in 2021 before being named president in March 2022.

In September, USF announced Limayem as the sole finalist for the school’s president position. Mike Griffin, chair of the presidential search committee, said in a statement that Moez is “the right person to accelerate our momentum and lead us to even greater heights.”

Before becoming UNF’s president in 2022, Limayem served as the Lynn Pippenger Dean of the Muma College of Business at USF for 10 years.


“While dean at USF, Limayem and his team raised more than $126 million in private donations for the college, including the largest individual gift in the university’s history at the time,” USF Board of Trustees Chair Will Weatherford said in a message to the university. “Those results don’t happen without someone who creates a clear vision for an organization.”

As UNF’s president, Limayem welcomed the largest incoming class of students in the university’s history. He also set a record with first-year student retention rate and led the university to No. 1 in Florida for the highest percentage of bachelor’s graduates employed in the state.

Before coming to Florida, Limayem was the associate dean for research and graduate programs at the University of Arkansas Sam M. Walton College of Business.

USF said the Board of Governors is scheduled to consider Limayem’s appointment during its meeting on Nov. 6.