Incumbent President Joe Echevarria, 78, will be the seventh president of the University of Miami following a unanimous vote by the Board of Trustees Friday morning.

Echevarria, the longtime UM supporter and the university’s first-ever CEO, will lead UM into its centennial year, transitioning from interim to official president. He is the first UM alumni to hold this position and the university’s second Hispanic president.

“Joe is a Cane through and through. He embodies our mission and stands alongside our teams – in classrooms, clinics, labs and competitive fields around the world,” Board of Trustees Chair Manny Kadre said in a statement to the UM community at 10:30 a.m. Friday.

“His personal journey has been tied to the U since the day he first stepped foot on campus 50 years ago.”

The former CEO of Deloitte LLP has been active in UM leadership for over a decade. Echevarria joined the board of trustees in 2012 and served in a number of advisory roles for former UM President Julio Frenk before being named CEO of UHealth, UM’s sprawling medical arm, in 2020. He was subsequently appointed CEO of the university in 2020.

The decision comes four months after Frenk’s abrupt resignation as chancellor of UCLA. Frenk served as president for nine years and worked closely with Echevarria for most of those years.

“Joe Echevarria, our exemplary CEO and an unparalleled leader, has been critical to navigating every crisis and challenge we have faced during my tenure as president,” Frenk said in a statement to the UM community after he took office on March 12 announced his resignation in June 2024.

Unlike previous presidential searches, this was primarily an internal process that took place at an accelerated pace. No formal search committee was named, as was the case with the search for a replacement for Donna Shalala in 2014, which lasted until April 2015. Instead, the university appointed an advisory committee of eleven people representing the faculty, deans and board, who worked quietly for four months to confirm Frenk’s successor.

Echevarria stands out from previous presidents. He only has a bachelor’s degree and has spent most of his career in business. Before joining UM as a trustee in 2012, Echevarria had no involvement in higher education or academia.

Born in the South Bronx to a single Puerto Rican mother, Echevarria entered a government welfare program to attend college, where he earned a degree in business administration. He was hired out of college by Deloitte LLP, where he quickly rose through the ranks, eventually taking on the role of CEO in 2011 until his retirement in 2014.

Deloitte is one of the “Big Four” accounting firms and the largest professional services network in the world by revenue and number of employees.

He has held a number of other roles, including as an adviser to the Obama Foundation, chairman of President Barack Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, and a board member of Pfizer and UNUM, an insurance company.

Echevarria has not announced any official plans for his presidency, although his previous position at UHealth and his involvement as a trustee for the athletics program suggest they may be a top priority.

No expected timeline for his presidential term has been announced, but previous presidents have typically served 10 to 20 years.

The school has not indicated whether a new candidate will take over his current position as CEO or whether the position will take over entirely under his presidency.

The story was originally published by The Miami Hurricanethe student newspaper of the University of Miami in Coral Gables, as part of an editorial content partnership with the WLRN newsroom.