UM News

Joe Natoli

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (September 22, 2016)—Joe Natoli, who guided the University of Miami through a decade of growth with characteristic wisdom and humanity, will be stepping down early next year from his position as senior vice president for business and finance and chief financial officer. After assisting in the search for his successor, he will continue to advise the University as a consultant.

“Joe joined the University after a long and successful career in the newspaper business,” President Julio Frenk said in a message. “During his decade at UM, revenues doubled to more than $2.8 billion, the University’s annual economic impact grew to more than $6 billion, and it maintained an A rating despite significant investment in facilities and programmatic growth. Please join me in thanking Joe for his many years of leadership and dedication to the University and in wishing him the very best in the future.”

“I have been fortunate to work for two of the most influential institutions in South Florida, The Miami Herald/El Nuevo Herald and for the last decade, the University of Miami,” Natoli said. “It’s been great fun helping a community that I love dearly prosper and become a world-class location in which to live, visit, be educated, and receive the finest health care that academic medicine has to offer.”

A founding board member of the Dolphins Cancer Challenge who the South Florida Business Journal honored as its nonprofit CFO of the Year in 2013, Natoli joined the University in September 2006 after three decades with The Miami Herald’s former parent company, Knight Ridder, Inc.

At the University, he guided the financial health of one of South Florida’s largest private employers, with more than 14,000 faculty and staff and current-year revenues of more than $3 billion. As senior vice president, he oversees accounting and finance, including investing endowment and pension assets, information technology, human resources, supply chain, research administration, risk management, real estate planning and construction, buildings and grounds, campus police, and auxiliaries including the Convocation Center. He led University efforts with the city of Coral Gables that resulted in a 20-year development agreement that included zoning to build The Lennar Foundation Medical Center, which will open later this year on the Coral Gables campus.

From 2013 to 2015, he also served as interim COO of UHealth, the University of Miami Health System, where he was responsible for operations of the University of Miami Hospital, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, and the University of Miami Medical Group.

Prior to joining the University, Natoli was chairman and publisher of Knight Ridder’s largest newspapers, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News and previously, president and publisher of the San Jose Mercury News. He joined the University after The McClatchy Company purchased Knight Ridder and divested itself of the Philadelphia papers. But he spent most of his newspaper career in Miami, where he served as controller, vice president of operations, general manager, and president of The Miami Herald, and where his impact on the community and the University is indelible.

An enthusiastic supporter of UM Athletics, Natoli was, along with Athletic’s Tony Hernandez, the first UM administrator to interview then-candidate Jim Larrañaga for head coach of the men’s basketball team. To prepare for the Dolphins Cancer Challenge (DCC), Natoli became an avid cycler, completing the 100-plus mile event and consistently being among the top fundraisers. To date, the DCC has raised $16.5 million for research at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center.

A recipient of the Miami Coalition of Christians and Jews’ Silver Medallion for Humanitarianism, Natoli is also a trustee of the Mitchell Wolfson Sr. Foundation Board, which supports student scholarships and academic programs. He has chaired or co-chaired community-wide United Way campaigns in every community in which he has lived and worked—Miami-Dade County, Silicon Valley (San Jose) and Southeastern Pennsylvania (Philadelphia).

And although he graduated from the University of South Florida—where he was honored as its Business School Alumnus of the Year—and earned his M.B.A. from Nova Southeastern University, he is a true ’Cane, having been selected for the Iron Arrow Honor Society in 2014.

“I am grateful for the support that I received over the last decade from colleagues throughout the University, particularly the management team and staff in business and finance,” Natoli said. “They are first-class and always put the needs of their customers first. I could not be more proud of the job that they have done.”