Anthony Catanese

Anthony James Catanese is an American university administrator, author, and a former president and CEO of the Florida Institute of Technology. Prior to his position at the Florida Institute of Technology, Catanese was president of Florida Atlantic University. Catanese previously served as president and chairman of the President's council of the Sunshine State Conference.

He has also held university administration positions at Pratt Institute in New York City, the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, the University of Miami and the Georgia Institute of Technology. Catanese was Senior Fulbright Professor at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia. He received a master's degree in urban planning from New York University in 1966 and Ph.D. in urban and regional planning in 1969 from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Career Catanese was provost of Pratt Institute in New York City, dean of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, associate dean of the School of Engineering and Environmental Design and James A. Ryder Professor at the University of Miami and professor and director of the Center for Planning and Development at the Georgia Institute of Technology. During this term, he was also a professor of architecture and planning at the university. In 2003, as a parting gift, the Florida Atlantic University foundation, a charitable foundation that supports the school illegally funneled $42,000 to Catanese for the purchase of a Corvette. Police suggested that both Catanese and his wife be charged with felonies as a result of the scandal. In 1998, prior to these allegations of misconduct, he was awarded the Sons of Italy Foundation Achievement Award. A year later, Catanese was awarded the Sun-Sentinel's Excalibur Award.

Catanese was elected as a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners in 2001. In 2002, he was named the most outstanding university president in the Southeastern United States by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), the largest association of educational institutions in the world. In 2003, Catanese assembled an administrative team at the university and appointed T. Dwayne McCay as provost and chief academic officer. He also served as president or chair of the Florida Association of Colleges and Universities and the Florida Campus Compact. He was recognized for establishing a pre-law program at the Florida Institute of Technology and organizing an advisory committee of members of the Brevard Bar Association. The Brevard Walk of Fame recognizes leaders in Central Florida who contributed to the community.

He has authored thirteen books, eighteen chapters in books, over sixty-five articles in academic journals and thirty-five research monographs.

Personal life He is married to Sara Catanese and has three children.