Florida State University honored alumnus James M. Seneff and the CNL Charitable Foundation on Saturday at a celebration hosted by President John Thrasher and First Lady Jean Thrasher at the FSU President’s House.

Taking their Top 10 standings to new heights, the Florida State University College of Business’ undergraduate programs in Insurance and Real Estate now rank No. 3 and No. 9 respectively among all programs nationwide, according to Monday’s release of U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Colleges 2020” guidebook.

Florida State University soared eight spots to No. 18 among national public universities in the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings, meeting and well exceeding its goal of joining the Top 25.

Three alumni recently joined the College of Business Board of Governors (BOG): James “Chef” Barlow, Kevin Little and Lynn McMahon. The 40-member board includes current and former executives of global companies representing a broad range of industries.

The newly appointed chairman of the College of Business Recent Alumni Board (RAB) and fellow members of the board’s executive committee have been busy mapping out a strategy to rally alumni to expand and strengthen the “Nole Network” across the country.

Florida State University College of Business senior Antoinette Thomas was thrilled to be accepted by e-commerce logistic firm Floship for a summer internship. Even better: She gained two months of experience in Hong Kong, one of the world’s busiest and most sophisticated financial centers.  

A team of Master of Business Administration (MBA) students jumped at the opportunity to help FSU women’s basketball Head Coach Sue Semrau create a marketing strategy that highlights Semrau and her team’s success, expands their loyal fan base and promotes game night as a can’t miss event. 

Two of the real estate investment industry’s top executives have signed on to participate at the FSU Real Estate Center’s upcoming Real Estate TRENDS Conference at Florida State University. David Rubenstein of The Carlyle Group and Dan Quayle, former vice president of the United States, now with Cerberus Global Investments, will be among an impressive slate of speakers.

Anticipation is a wonderful thing, especially this time of year. We welcomed a record number of freshmen during the Summer C session and anticipate a record number of freshmen this fall. Each one of them is full of anticipation about his or her next four years on campus and what it means to be a part of the Seminole family. I personally cannot wait for the sounds of the Marching Chiefs practices resonating across campus and the anticipation of another football season in Tallahassee. And, we all anticipate the cooler weather that arrives in the fall.

A hallmark of a preeminent university is high-caliber faculty, which is why recruiting experts in their fields is a priority for the College of Business. We welcome the following new faculty members: