Former Southern University Chancellor Jim Llorens, who most recently served as Mayor Sharon Weston Broome’s chief administrative officer, is heading to Fort Myers, Florida, where he will serve as interim provost and vice president of academic affairs at Florida Gulf Coast University.
Llorens was recruited for the position by the university’s newly-appointed president, Mike Martin, who took over in July and previously served as LSU’s chancellor from 2008-2012.
Llorens says he and Martin were friends and colleagues during Martin’s years in Baton Rouge, and they’ve kept in touch. When Martin took over at FGCU last summer, he asked Llorens if he’d consider coming aboard temporarily to assess the university’s academic performance, make recommendations and implement some strategy changes.
“I told him I am not looking for anything on a permanent basis and he called me back and said ‘This will work out perfectly,” Llorens says. “We respect each other’s priorities on education, and I thought this would be a good opportunity.”
The appointment will be for 12-to-18 months.
Llorens has taken a variety of short-term positions since leaving Southern in 2014, after serving as chancellor for three years. He was president of Cristo Rey Baton Rouge Franciscan High School for less than two years, and, most recently served as Broome’s interim CAO for five months.
Llorens says at this stage in his career, it’s “fun and exciting” to utilize his decades of experience in a variety of different ways without having to make a long-term commitment to any single institution or organization.
FGCU is just 20 years old and has almost 15,000 students on its southwest Florida campus. It is part of the State University System of Florida.
Martin is the university’s fourth president. After leaving LSU in 2012, he served as chancellor of Colorado State University System from 2012-2015.
—Stephanie Riegel
