Clemson Names Georgia Provost as New President

Jessica Holdman/South Carolina Daily Gazette

CLEMSON — Clemson University’s governing board on Thursday selected University of Georgia provost Benjamin Ayers as the college’s 16th president.

Ayers’ selection to lead the 30,000-student university came four days after the previously chosen candidate, Kevin Guskiewicz, unexpectedly opted to remain president at Michigan State University.

Ayers will replace former President Jim Clements, who abruptly retired in December after 12 years on the job.

“One of the truest tests in life is knowing with total clarity where you belong,” board Chairwoman Kim Wilkerson said ahead of the Ayers announcement. “It reveals itself in its own time to each person in its own way, and when it does, that clarity deserves respect. We have watched that kind of clarity play out over the past several days. It is exactly what a search process of this rigor should surface.”

The board then voted unanimously to hire Ayers at a salary of $1 million: $331,532 in taxpayer dollars and $668,468 from Clemson’s private foundation. The nonprofit will also cover annual raises of $50,000, and performance bonuses of up to $225,000 annually. It’s a five-year contract, trustee Smyth McKissick said.

By comparison, Clements’ compensation package totaled $1.5 million when he left, and Guskiewicz had been offered $1.2 million.

Ayers is expected to begin his new role at Clemson on Aug. 1, McKissick said.

Trustee Cheri Phyfer, who led the search committee, called Ayers “an accomplished higher education leader with a distinguished record of having advanced student success, strengthening research and academic excellence, fostering innovation, and building partnerships, and building philanthropic support.”

Ayers has been provost at the University of Georgia for one year. Before that, he spent more than a decade as dean of the college’s business school.

He’s credited with growing the business school’s endowment from $90 million to nearly $300 million, which funded faculty and scholarships for students.

“One of the things that impressed the board most about Dr. Ayers wasn’t simply his record of accomplishment; it was his character throughout this process,” Wilkerson said. “He demonstrated humility, sound judgment, and an unwavering commitment to the institution he was serving. Those qualities gave us confidence that he would bring that same thoughtful stewardship to Clemson University.”

An accountant, Ayers started his career in academia 30 years ago as a professor at the University of Georgia. He worked for London-headquartered tax firm KPMG in its Atlanta and Tampa offices from 1987-1991, then a year at Complete Health Inc., a clinic network of primary care doctors who treat seniors on Medicare, before pursuing a doctorate in accounting at the University of Texas at Austin.

Ayers also serves on the board of Synovus Bank’s Northeast Georgia Division.

Board membership was a point of tension near the end of Clements’ presidency, as conflict-of-interest questions arose about a seat he held on the corporate board of a homebuilding company pursuing a major development in nearby Oconee County, including a satellite Clemson campus.

Clemson maintained that Clements’ position on the corporate board in no way influenced his decision to leave his post after 12 years on the job.

And an investigation by South Carolina’s inspector general found no wrongdoing in Clemson University’s interactions with the developer, though he recommended changes to prevent future conflict of interest concerns, according to his report released in April.

The Clemson board also selected the Georgia provost over two Clemson deans who had been among three finalists in the initial search.

Clemson’s six month-search for a new president began Dec. 18, 2025, with the school paying Dallas-based firm Funk Associates $200,000 to conduct it.

The school narrowed down the field from 77 applicants to three finalists, including Guskiewicz; Anand Gramopadhye, dean of Clemson’s engineering and computing school; and Cynthia Young, dean of Clemson’s College of Science.

In a letter to the campus, Wilkerson thanked the Clemson deans for applying and addressed why Ayers had not been among the finalists.

“Prior to Clemson’s final decision, Dr. Ayers stepped back from consideration in order to remain fully committed to the University of Georgia,” she wrote. “When circumstances changed, conversations resumed and the board quickly affirmed what had become clear throughout the search: Dr. Ayers’ experience and vision made him the unanimous choice to serve as Clemson’s next president.”

As for Guskiewicz, his surprise reversal came less than six weeks after agreeing to lead the Upstate university. He had even spent a day in late June attending the college’s board meeting and posing for pictures with faculty and students at Clemson.

In an interview with the Chronicle of Higher Education, he apologized for the uncertainty his decision caused at both Clemson and in Michigan.

“This was a combination of both personal and professional considerations that we had,” he said. “At the end of the day, I realized something very simple, and that was that I love this university, Amy loves this university, and we believe deeply in what it stands for and believe just as deeply in the leadership team that we’ve built to move us forward every day.”

Guskiewicz said when he visited campus in June, he had not yet signed an employment agreement with Clemson. He also mentioned contractual obligations he may still have had to help Michigan State University with a presidential transition.

One thing he made clear was that the decision to remain in Michigan had nothing to do with his experience with Clemson.

“Let me just say, there’s a lot of great things happening at Clemson University, and that very, very difficult decision that my wife and I made had nothing to do with anything that we were discouraged by at Clemson University,” he told the Chronicle.