The UF Board of Trustees unanimously selected an Iranian immigrant as its next next chairman, in a meeting last Friday.
Mori Hosseini, the CEO of a construction company called Intervest Construction Inc., was nominated by the board’s current chairman, Bill Heavener. He will assume his new role July 1, UF spokesperson Margot Winick, wrote in an email.
A new chair is chosen every two years, Winick said. Trustees volunteer to serve on the board and do not get paid, according to bylaws.
Prior to coming to UF in 2016, Hosseini was chairman for other boards, including the Board of Governors of the State University System of Florida and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida.
UF President Kent Fuchs said that as an immigrant from Iran, Hosseini recognized the immense value in a college education as a means to a better life.
“We’re very, very fortunate that he is the (next) chair of our board,” Fuchs said.
Hosseini first studied at Chelsea College in England for a few years before receiving his master’s in business administration from Embry-Riddle in 1982. Two years before he graduated, he founded Intervest Construction Inc. in Daytona.
As a chairman-elect, Hosseini nominated board member Tom Kuntz, also elected unanimously, to serve as vice chair.
Kuntz, also a former chairman for the Board of Governors, joined the board this spring after being appointed by Gov. Rick Scott in January, according to Alligator archives.
Fuchs said Hosseini is invested in improving Florida’s higher education, and regularly meets with Gov. Rick Scott and other politicians in Tallahassee about getting more funding for state universities in his free time.
“The word passionate is really the only word I can think of,” Fuchs said.
Contact Elliott Nasby at enasby@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter at @_ElohEl.
