JCU Board of Trustees Renews President Franco Pavoncello's Mandate

John Cabot University is pleased to announce that its Board of Trustees has voted unanimously to renew Dr. Franco Pavoncello’s mandate as President for the next three years, until June of 2016.

President Pavoncello joined JCU in 1990 as a member of the faculty and he served as Dean of Academic Affairs from 1996 to 2005 while continuing to lecture in Political Science. In 2005, Dr. Pavoncello became Acting President of the University and was confirmed President in April 2006, the first Italian citizen to lead an American university.

Franco Pavoncello is the sixth President of JCU, which was founded in 1972 and is celebrating its fortieth anniversary this year.

After receiving a B.A. in International Relations and Chinese and Japanese Studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Franco Pavoncello continued his studies at the University of Michigan, where he obtained an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Political Science.

A leading analyst of Italian politics, Dr. Pavoncello’s work has appeared in, among others, the American Political Science Review, the British Journal of Political Science, Asian Studies, and World Affairs. He is also a well-known media commentator on Italian affairs, a contributor to major international newspapers, and appears regularly on radio and television networks, including CNN, BBC, New York Times, Reuters Press and TV, International Herald Tribune and many other media organizations.

This year, President Pavoncello was named “Amico ad honorem” (Friend for Special Merits) of the Accademia dei Lincei, Italy’s National Academy of Sciences, for his special role in establishing closer relationships between the Academy and the Italian-American community.