UWF Board of Trustees holds meeting with new chairman, vice chairman

The University of West Florida Board of Trustees met today in its first full meeting of the calendar year, with a new chairman in Mort O’Sullivan and vice chairman in Dave Cleveland. This also marked Dr. Martha Saunders’ first Board of Trustees meeting as president of UWF.

“I’m looking forward to working with Chairman O’Sullivan and the other trustees as we continue to move UWF forward,” Saunders said. “We have accomplished a great deal recently, but there is still much to be done.”

O’Sullivan joined the board in 2010 and has served as vice chairman since 2013. He is the regional managing member of Warren Averett, LLC, where he focuses on consulting and management advisory services to clients, while offering his expertise in litigation support, business valuations and mergers and acquisitions. He also is a registered investment advisor.

“I’m honored and excited to serve as chairman of the University of West Florida’s Board of Trustees,” O’Sullivan said. “I have 12 dedicated and talented fellow board members. We will work closely with President Saunders and the UWF team to continue the journey to the top of the mountain.

“Our region has a great university in UWF. For 50 years, UWF has been improving lives and creating life-changing opportunities for people in our region and beyond. It will play an even greater role in the near term as we focus on areas in which we excel and enhance these programs to levels of national status.”   

O’Sullivan graduated from UWF in 1973 and has played an active role with the institution since 1975, having served on the UWF Foundation Board of Directors and College of Business Advisory Council, and, most recently, chairing the UWF Presidential Search Committee.

Cleveland, who has served on the UWF Board of Trustees since 2011, is a co-founder of Highpointe Hotel Corporation, a hotel management and development company based in Pensacola. Highpointe currently manages a portfolio of 15 hotels in Florida, Alabama and Louisiana. As a partner in the firm and serving as its senior vice president of marketing and development, Cleveland coordinates all aspects of market research for the properties developed and managed by Highpointe and supervises the hotels’ marketing efforts.

“I am pleased to be working with President Saunders, Chairman O’Sullivan and the rest of the board during such an exciting and pivotal time for the University,” Cleveland said. “There is much to work on, but we’re excited about our recent successes and the many opportunities that lie ahead.”

Cleveland is past president of the UWF Foundation and has served on the UWF Board of Trustees Finance and Facilities Committee.

For more information about the UWF Board of Trustees, visit uwf.edu/trustees.