Santa Ono has a new job: leading a privately funded research institute with global reach.
The Ellison Institute of Technology in Oxford, England, announced Monday that it has hired the former University of Michigan president as its global president, with a mandate to develop and expand science programs. The move comes several months after Ono left Michigan to pursue the presidency of the University of Florida, where he was approved by UF’s Board of Trustees but rejected by the Florida Board of Governors over his past support of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, which he unsuccessfully sought to distance himself from.
Ono was set to earn nearly $3 million a year at UF. When the Board of Governors shot down his appointment in June on a 10-to-6 vote, the move made national headlines.
Now Ono, who previously led the Universities of Cincinnati and British Columbia, is returning to international higher education with his new role at EIT Oxford, a private organization established by software entrepreneur Larry Ellison, who co-founded Oracle. Though EIT is not a higher ed institution, it partners with Britain’s University of Oxford on research initiatives and scholarship programs.
The Ellison Institute of Technology also has a site in Los Angeles.
“I look forward to collaborating with EIT’s leadership teams worldwide to advance Larry Ellison’s bold vision,” Ono said in a Monday statement. “I believe this innovative approach represents the most exciting investment in fundamental and applied research globally, and I am thrilled to be part of this collective effort to create solutions to humanity’s most pressing challenges.”
An immunologist by training, Ono has held multiple research-focused roles in the past; EIT noted his “distinguished career in biomedical research and immunology” in the announcement. He will report to Ellison and focus on issues such as “health, climate change, food sustainability, and the safe and ethical development of [artificial intelligence],” according to Ono’s LinkedIn page.
The hiring announcement landed on the same day the University of Florida Board of Trustees revealed that UF is still working to find an interim president, even as current interim Kent Fuchs nears the end of his contract on Sept. 1, after extending it once already.
Fuchs, a former UF president, retired in 2023 after the university hired then–Republican senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska for the top job. Sasse abruptly stepped down in July 2024, shortly before a spending scandal emerged, and Fuchs has led UF as interim president since that August.
But progress toward finding the next interim president appears to be slow moving.
UF Board of Trustees chair Mori Hosseini told fellow trustees at a virtual meeting Monday that efforts to select a temporary leader are ongoing as Fuchs’s contract nears expiration.
“This has been a focus over the past few months, and I have taken a deliberate and thoughtful approach to this responsibility,” Hosseini said. “President Fuchs has been extremely gracious in extending his appointment. As soon as we have an interim president candidate, we will schedule an in-person board meeting to interview and consider the candidate for interim president.”
With the search for his successor dragging on, Fuchs credited the trustees for being deliberate.
“I know that you all are not settling for just anyone that wants the position, or that might be recommended,” Fuchs said at Monday’s meeting. “You want the very best for the institution.”
