{"id":310588,"date":"2026-06-17T16:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T16:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/310588\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T16:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T16:26:09","slug":"usf-elects-former-student-body-president-as-board-chair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/310588\/","title":{"rendered":"USF elects former student body president as board chair"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">The University of South Florida Board of Trustees elected Mike Griffin as chairman Wednesday, placing the Tampa real-estate executive and longtime trustee in the board\u2019s top <a href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/category\/leadership\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"19\" title=\"leadership\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">leadership<\/a> position.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Griffin, vice chairman and co-head of the Florida region for Savills, will serve a two-year term. He had served as acting chair since April, when former Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford stepped down from the role while remaining on the board.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Trustees also elected Oscar Horton, president and chief executive of commercial transportation company Sun State International, as vice chairman. Horton joined the board in 2018 and serves on the boards of Tampa General Hospital, Community Foundation Tampa Bay and the Bank of Tampa.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"563\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/burns-ct-41-2-1000x563.jpeg\" alt=\"Mike Griffin and Will Weatherford at a University of South Florida Board of Trustees meeting following Griffin's election as chairman.\" class=\"wp-image-91558\"  \/>Mike Griffin and Will Weatherford after Griffin was elected chairman of USF\u2019s Board of Trustees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Griffin becomes the first former USF student body president to chair the university\u2019s Board of Trustees. A graduate of USF\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/category\/business-news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"16\" title=\"business\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">business<\/a> school, he served two terms as student body president before becoming the student representative on the university\u2019s inaugural Board of Trustees in 2001.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">In recent years, Griffin has played a central role in university leadership decisions. He has served as vice chair since 2021 and has chaired the university\u2019s two most recent presidential search committees, including the search that led to Moez Limayem\u2019s selection as USF\u2019s ninth president in 2025.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"563\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/burns-ct-41-1-1000x563.jpeg\" alt=\"Mike Griffin, Moez Limayem and Oscar Horton at the University of South Florida Board of Trustees meeting where Griffin was elected chairman and Horton vice chairman.\" class=\"wp-image-91557\"  \/>Moez Limayem, Mike Griffin and Oscar Horton following USF board leadership elections.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cI am humbled to be elected chairman of the Board of Trustees for the University of South Florida,\u201d Griffin said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Beyond USF, Griffin previously chaired the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce and serves on several corporate and nonprofit boards, including Seacoast Banking Corp. and Lions World Vision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">During Wednesday\u2019s meeting, trustees and President Moez Limayem recognized Weatherford for five years as chairman. Weatherford will remain a member of the board.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cIt has been the honor of a lifetime to serve as chair,\u201d Weatherford said. \u201cI don\u2019t know anyone who loves this university more than Mike Griffin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">USF\u2019s Board of Trustees consists of 13 members, including six appointed by the governor, five appointed by the Florida Board of Governors and the elected presidents of the Faculty Senate and Student Government.<\/p>\n<p>  Read More Tampa Bay Business News<\/p>\n<p>\n    Explore the latest Tampa Bay business news, <a href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/real-estate\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Real Estate\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">real estate<\/a> deals, development projects, executive moves and company updates shaping the region.\n  <\/p>\n<p>\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The University of South Florida Board of Trustees elected Mike Griffin as chairman Wednesday, placing the Tampa real-estate&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-310588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}