Beloved UM President Julio Frenk Is Leaving for UCLA

University of Miami president Julio Frenk is stepping down after nine years at the helm.

June 12, 2024

Image: a 2022 photo of UM president Julio Frenk wearing a dark pinstriped suit and an orange tie (the latter perhaps a nod to UM's orange and green school colors)

University of Miami president Julio Frenk is stepping down to lead UCLA as chancellor. Uuniversity of Miami photo

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University of Miami president Julio Frenk is stepping down.

After nine years at the helm of UM, Frenk is leaving Coral Gables to become chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles (better known as UCLA).

Born in Mexico, Frenk studied medicine and public health in Mexico City and the U.S. He will be UCLA's first Latino chancellor.

Frenk served as Mexico's secretary of health from 2000 until 2006 during the administration of then-president Vicente Fox. Prior to moving to Miami, he served as dean of faculty at Harvard University's School of Public Health. He joined UM in 2015.

For years, Frenk, who will turn 71 in December, has played an integral role in the university’s foundational principles and served as a dynamic force within Greater Miami's public-health community.

At UCLA, Frenk will succeed Gene Block, starting in January 2025.

In a statement earlier today, UM announced that its board of trustees had selected chief executive officer Joe Echevarria to serve as acting president, "effective immediately."

And by "immediately," they meant "immediately."

The university has already changed Frenk's bio page on its website to a bio of Echevarria. (Frenk's old bio can still be accessed via the internet archive.)

When students and faculty return to campus in the fall, they're in for a dose of heartbreak when it hits home that president Frenk has made a bold color switch from orange and green to blue and gold.

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