The Florida Board of Governors confirmed Thursday the selection of David Szymanski as the University of North Florida’s sixth president. He will begin May 31.
Szymanski will succeed the retiring John Delaney, who has served as UNF president for 15 years.
Szymanski is dean of the Carl H. Lindner College of Business and a professor of marketing at the University of Cincinnati.
Under his leadership, enrollment in the business college grew 50 percent for undergraduate and nearly 200 percent for graduate students, with first-year retention rates as high as 93 percent and six-year graduation rates increasing 1,000 basis points to 71 percent.
During his eight years at the University of Cincinnati, Szymanski led curriculum changes for undergraduate and graduate students and revised the MBA program to be more flexible for professional and time-constrained students.
New masters, doctoral and graduate certificate programs were added. The college also launched additional online courses and degree programs.
Szymanski helped raise more than $70 million, and in fiscal year 2017, the college raised more than $20 million, making it the first academic unit in the university’s history to break the $20 million threshold.
He served on several NCAA, corporate and professional boards and currently sits on the Office Depot board of directors.
In addition to Delaney, UNF has had four other permanent presidents, including founding president Thomas Carpenter (1969-80), Curtis McCray (1982-88), Adam Herbert (1989-98) and Anne Hopkins (1999-2000).