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Ricardo Azziz serves as Principal of SPH Consulting Group. Driven by his passion for transformational change, Dr. Azziz has played pivotal roles in leading successful mergers and consolidations in the higher education landscape. As the founding president of Georgia Regents University (now Augusta University), he led a significant merger, while also spearheading the alignment of clinical entities to create the Augusta University Health System.
Widely recognized for his expertise, Dr. Azziz' contributions have been featured in national publications such as TIME magazine, The New York Times, Forbes and The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Dr. Azziz is the lead author of ‘Leading Big Scary Change: Major Institutional Restructuring in Higher Education’ published by the TIAA Institute and 'Strategic Mergers in Higher Education'' published by Johns Hopkins University Press. His latest publication, 'Leading Mergers and Institutional Restructuring in Higher Education’ for Johns Hopkins University Press is expected in the summer 2024.
As a dedicated academic, Dr. Azziz holds faculty positions at the University at Albany, SUNY, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is a Fellow at the Center for Higher Education Mergers and Acquisitions (CHEMA) of the Foundation for Research and Education Excellence (FREE Foundation)and is actively researching change management and strategic planning in higher education.
Together with the SPH Consulting Group team, he is providing expertise and guidance to college and university governing boards and executives as they consider major future-oriented institutional restructuring strategies for the benefit of the students, faculty and campus, and local communities.
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