Modesto A. Maidique is the fourth and current president of Florida International University (FIU), Miami’s public research university.  With an enrollment of more than 38,000 students, FIU ranks among the 20 largest universities in the U.S. and is the nation’s largest Hispanic-serving university.  Appointed in 1986, Dr. Maidique is the longest-serving university president in Florida and the second longest-serving research university president in the nation. For more than two decades, he has led FIU in its journey to become one of the nation’s top public research universities.

 During Dr. Maidique’s tenure, the Colleges of Law and Engineering and a School of Architecture were established. He led the way in founding the FIU College of Medicine, making it one of only three U.S. medical schools established in the last 25 years. The first class of medical students will begin their studies at FIU in August 2009.

Under Dr. Maidique’s leadership, enrollment at FIU more than doubled, and the university added 22 doctoral programs and 18 undergraduate programs. FIU’s sponsored research funding grew from $6 million to nearly $110 million, and the institution’s endowment experienced exponential growth from less than $3 million to over $105 million. During this period, the university added a division I-A football team, gained membership in the nation’s oldest honor society, Phi Beta Kappa, and was included as a doctoral-and-research extensive university in the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching classification.

Dr. Maidique came to FIU with an elite background in both academe and business. He has held academic appointments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and Stanford University. He co-founded the Analog Devices, Inc., Semiconductor Division. He also served as CEO of Collaborative Research (now Genome Therapeutics) and as senior partner in Hambrecht & Quist Venture Partners. He holds several U.S. patents for semiconductor devices.

Internationally recognized as a leader in higher education and management of high technology enterprises, Dr. Maidique’s expertise has been sought at the highest levels. President George H.W. Bush appointed him to the President’s Educational Policy Advisory Committee, and he served in a similar capacity for President George W. Bush. He later served on the Secretary of Energy’s Advisory Board and is a member of the Presidential Scholars Commission.

A past chairman of The Beacon Council, Miami’s economic development authority, Dr. Maidique currently serves on the boards of National Semiconductor and the Carnival Corporation.

Dr. Maidique has published extensively in leading academic journals. He is a contributing author to ten books, and a co-author of Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation, a textbook widely used at colleges and universities. An article he co-authored, “The Art of High Technology Management,” is one of the best-selling articles published by the Sloan Management Review.  He is also a co-author of Energy Future, a New York Times bestseller on energy policy.

Dr. Maidique received B.S., M.S., E.E., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is a graduate of the Program for Management Development at the Harvard Business School.  He is married to Nancy Maidique, a Phi Beta Kappa FIU alumna, and has two children, Ana Teresa, of Duke University, and Mark Alex, a Cornell architect.