Florida International University launched a national search for its sixth executive leader last week. Its 15-member search committee, with the help of a Texas search firm, will likely select a final candidate sometime in July.
While we wait to meet FIU’s next permanent president, let’s get to know Kenneth Jessell. The university’s board of trustees appointed Jessell, who had been FIU’s CFO and senior vice president for 13 years, as interim president in late January.
Following are a few facts on Jessell based on a sit-down interview a Herald reporter had with him in March:
1. Personal and professional life 101
A Fort Lauderdale native, Jessell left South Florida only for college. He graduated three times from Florida State University in Tallahassee: He got a bachelor’s in political science, a master’s in business administration and a doctorate in finance.
He’s married and has two children: John, who lives with his partner in Miami, and Amanda, who lives with her partner and son, James Thomas, in North Carolina. Jessell said he tries to spend as much time as possible with them. He proudly displays a sign in his office that reads: “TGIF: This grandpa is fabulous.”
He launched his career in academia at Florida Atlantic University, where he worked for 26 years in different capacities including interim university provost and associate dean in the college of business administration. In 2009 he went to FIU, after then-President Mark Rosenberg called him.
“I initially told him I wasn’t interested,” Jessell recalled. But then he visited the main FIU campus in West Dade and left “impressed.”
“Just coming here and meeting with the students in particular really told me this is a great place. And I thought to myself, ‘if I’m ever going to make a change, this is probably the time to do it.’”
2. Why doesn’t he want to be president?
Although he stepped up as interim president in late January, Jessell has repeatedly said he doesn’t wish to stay on permanently in the top role.
“I am very happy in my position of vice president for finance administration and CFO,” he said. “I loved what I was doing and want to go back to that position. I’ve always enjoyed being very, very supportive to the president and really focusing on some of the weeds, the details, in getting things done.
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“I don’t think I want to make a commitment long term. I’ll probably be 67 by the time everything is done, so it’s the right decision,” said Jessell, who’s 66 now and turns 67 on July 10, referring to the national search process.
He said “it needs to be the best president that we can bring,” regardless of gender or whether it’s an internal or external candidate. The ideal person, he thinks, would stay at FIU for 5 to 15 years at least and “really take the university to the next level.”
3. An ‘interesting’ hobby
Jessell collects antique silver. He particularly enjoys unusual pieces from the 1600s, 1700s and 1800s, and goes to antique shows or any other place where he can buy them.
“It’s an interesting hobby,” he said, adding he “got hooked on it” about 20 years ago when he found his first item at a garage sale next door in Lighthouse Point.
He researched the odd marks on that first piece and discovered the English developed a system in the 1400s to standardize information like who made it and where it was made.
His favorite piece is an engraving from the 1940s or 1950s of Madonna and Child in a small silver frame with little gold rosettes on it, based on a painting from the 1400s.
4. Jessell on Rosenberg’s abrupt exit
Jessell found out about Rosenberg’s resignation a few hours before the rest of the community. Late on a Thursday afternoon, the chair of the FIU Board of Trustees, Dean Colson, called Jessell and asked him to stop by his office on his way home.
“I live in Brickell; he’s on Coral Way, so it wasn’t out of the way. I got there at about 5:15 and he gave me just a very broad-brush overview of the events that had taken place as well as what he was anticipating,” Jessell said. “His question was, ‘Would you be willing to serve if you’re nominated for the position of president?’ ”
“I was a little numb, but I could sense his sincerity and his sense of urgency in moving the university forward during what would likely be a difficult time.”
Jessell said he considers Rosenberg a professional colleague, not a friend socially, and has probably only seen him a few times outside of work events over the 12 years or so that they worked closely.
“I was definitely shocked,” he said. “And quite surprised and disappointed,” he said about Rosenberg leaving under a cloud of a sexual harassment allegation.
READ MORE: Will Rosenberg return to FIU? Maybe. But here’s what needs to happen
That initial reaction only deepened after he read the final report following the investigation in March, Jessell said.
Should Rosenberg come back to FIU? Jessell declined to comment, adding he wants the committee in charge to decide without any outside influence.
5. Rosenberg is not the elephant in the room
A few months after he moved into the presidential office, Jessell said he hasn’t gotten awkward questions from students, angry comments from alumni or anything of that sort.
“It has not come up as part of the conversation, if anything has been said it has been, ‘We are so shocked by what we heard but we are very thankful that you have stepped up and are willing to serve the university during this transition period.’ I think everyone has tried to focus on the future and not dwell on the immediate past with respect to the report.
“We’re not letting that define us as far as I can tell,” he said.
He credited that, at least in part, to the administration’s proactive response in acknowledging FIU needed to change its campus culture.
The university launched a website, report.fiu.edu, to report sexual harassment and sexual misconduct, and held a town hall to receive feedback.
This story was originally published April 12, 2022 7:00 AM.
