“The time has arrived for all of us; be you Board member or staff, student or faculty, alumni or supporter, to face the wind together; to work in concert for the greater purposes of the University.”
These are the words of FAMU Board of Trustees member Cleve Warren, just minutes after being elected chair of the Board by his colleagues with a unanimous 10-0 vote. His election took place during a called meeting held earlier today.
Trustee Robert Woody nominated Warren for the position.
“Trustee Warren is qualified. He’s been on the Board long enough to understand FAMU and its mission. He understands that it is all about the students,” Woody said.
Warren is the chief financial officer for Florida State College in Jacksonville, Fla. He is a former banker and financial advisor, and has served in state and local government as executive director of the Florida Black Business Investment Board under former Gov. Bob Martinez, and as chief of Economic Development for the City of Jacksonville under former Mayor Ed Austin.
He currently serves on the boards of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce, the Jacksonville Civic Council, and the Jacksonville Transportation Authority. Warren also serves on the boards of several charitable and civic organizations and is co-chair of the Jacksonville Urban Education Symposium.
“It is a great honor to serve,” Warren said. “I pledge to honor my colleagues’ selection of me as chair by giving to it all that it demands of me as a molder of consensus, and as principal steward of its governing tenets.”
He continued, “We have much work ahead of us, as together we face the challenges to our space and purpose as an HBCU, and to our place as one of the world’s finest institutions of higher learning.”
Commenting on Trustee Warren’s election, President Elmira Mangum, Ph.D., said, “I am excited about the opportunity to work with Trustee Warren as chair of the Board. Trustee Warren has a deep passion for FAMU and higher education in general. I look forward to the insight and wisdom he will offer to many of our strategic areas of emphasis, including his expertise in economic development, urban education, financial planning, and community outreach.”
A retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, and an alumnus of both Leadership Jacksonville and Leadership Florida, Warren earned his bachelor’s degree in banking and finance from the University of North Florida and his master’s degree in business administration from Jacksonville University. He is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in educational leadership at the University of North Florida.
“We will put aside our minor differences and be strengthened by the major interest we have in the prosperity and posterity of Florida A&M University,” Warren said.
