In a unanimous vote, Thursday, the Florida Board of Governors confirmed Dr. Aysegul Timur as the next president of Florida Gulf Coast University.
The vote came during the Board of Governor’s meeting at the University of South Florida in Tampa.
Dr. Timur will become FGCU’s fifth president and the first female president in the school’s history. Since June 2020, she’s served as FGCU’s Vice President and Vice Provost for Strategy and Program Innovations.
Timur immigrated to the U.S. from Turkey 25 years ago before earning a Ph.D. from the University of South Florida in Business Administration with a major in Economics.
“I am a proud product of the number one state in higher education in the nation and I think I attended my Ph.D. orientation in this very room. I am having flashbacks now,” said Timur prior to the Florida Board of Governors’ vote.
“I have to share with you one fun fact. This is very important to me. When I commuted from Naples to Tampa all those years ago, my son, who was about three years old at the time, often came with me to campus. Not only did I have a transformational experience here, but it also made an impact on him. So he just graduated from USF last May and guess what? His engineering ceremony was in this room again. So, I feel like we need to name this room differently from the Timur family perspective,” joked Timur.
After a search process that began 14 months ago, the FGCU Board of Trustees choose Timur on May 4.
On June 13, the school’s board of trustees approved a three-year, $500,000 annual salary for Timur with incentive bonuses of up to $100,000 a year.
When asked about plans for her first 60 days in office by Florida Board of Governor’s Chair Brian Lamb, Timur said one of her primary goals will be creating FGCU’s new strategic plan.
“Our FGCU Strategic plan will be expiring in December. So right away, starting July first, we will be working on our strategic plan. Of course, in the process we will be reaching out to all our constituents, all our stakeholders, make sure that they are inclusive part of the preparation of our strategic plan,” said Timur.
“So my 30-60-90-day plan is absolutely complete that plan and get the approval of our FGCU Board of Trustees. And then I hope to bring it to you in January to get the approval of the plan.”
Timur’s first official day as president will be July 1. That same day, outgoing FGCU President Dr. Mike Martin is slated to take over as interim president and CEO of the Collaboratory in Fort Myers.
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