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Clemson has a new president … again.
Three days after Michigan State’s Kevin Guskiewicz suddenly backed away from the university’s top job, the Tigers picked a new leader: Georgia’s Ben Ayers.
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Ayers, most recently UGA’s senior vice president for academic affairs and provost, was formally announced as Clemson’s 16th president Thursday. The university board of trustees unanimously approved his hire in a virtual meeting.
Ayers’ first day as Clemson president will be Aug. 1. He’s signing a five-year contract with a base salary of $1 million and various perks that’ll raise his annual compensation into the $1.3 million to $1.5 million range.
Before he was promoted to provost last summer, Jones spent 11 years as the dean of Georgia’s Terry College of Business. He initially joined UGA as a professor in 1996 and has spent 30 years working his way up the school’s academic ranks. He also previously led UGA’s accounting school.
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Ayers earned an undergraduate degree and a master’s degree at the University of Alabama and a doctorate of accounting from the University of Texas.
He also won’t have to move very far, considering Clemson and Athens, Georgia are only 79 miles and a roughly 90-minute drive apart.
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This is a developing story and will be updated.