Ricardo Azziz

Ricardo Azziz is a recognized thought leader in higher education change management, leadership, and mergers & acquisitions. He led the merger that resulted in Georgia Regents University (now Augusta University), serving as founding president. Among other positions, he served as president of Georgia Health Sciences University and senior executive within the State University of New York (SUNY) system administration. He is the lead author of ‘Mergers in Higher Education: A Proactive Strategy to a Better Future?’ (TIAA Institute, 2017), ‘Strategic Mergers in Higher Education’ (JHU Press, 2019), Leading Big Scary Change: Major Institutional Restructuring in Higher Education’ (TIAA Institute, 2023), and ‘Leading Existential Change in Higher Ed: Mergers, Closures and Other Major Institutional Restructuring’ (JHU Press, 2025). He writes a regular column in Higher Ed Dive, ‘Merger Watch’, and serves as Executive Director of the Foundation for Research and Education Excellence and Director of the Center for Higher Education Mergers and Acquisitions (CHEMA). He is on the faculties of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University at Albany, SUNY.