Board of Directors
Chairman Governor Jeb Bush
Jeb Bush is Founder, Chairman of the Board and President of the Foundation for Excellence in Education. He served as the 43rd governor of Florida, from 1999 through 2007.
During his two terms, Bush championed major reform of education. Florida raised academic standards, required accountability in public schools and created the most ambitious school choice program in the nation. The transformation is underway and the progress is measurable. More students are reading, writing and doing math and science on or above grade level. More high school seniors are earning a diploma and fewer students are dropping out. Florida’s third through 10th grade students are outscoring 60-70 percent of their peers in all other states in both reading and math.
Under his leadership in the late 1990s, the Foundation for Florida’s Future joined forces with the Greater Miami Urban League to establish the state’s first charter school, Liberty City Charter School, in one of the most underserved parts of Miami-Dade County. He also co-authored
Profiles in Character, a book profiling 14 of Florida’s civic heroes—people making a difference without claiming a single news headline.
Bush took time out of his successful business career to serve as Florida’s secretary of commerce under Bob Martinez, Florida's 40th governor, where he promoted the state worldwide.
Bush earned a bachelor’s degree in Latin American Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin. Bush and his wife Columba live in Miami and have three grown children. Bush is the son of President George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush.
Brian Yablonski
Brian Yablonski is a member of the Board of Directors and Secretary of the Foundation for Excellence in Education.
Currently, Mr. Yablonski is Vice President of Public Affairs for the St. Joe Company, Florida’s largest private landowner. In this role, he is helping to strategically plan nearly 800,000 acres of land in Northwest Florida. From 1999 to 2002, Yablonski served as Director of Policy and Deputy Chief of Staff for Governor Jeb Bush, where he assisted the governor in crafting the major policy initiatives for his first term in office. He also previously served as the communications director for the Foundation for Florida’s Future, editing its quarterly policy journal, Impact magazine, and co-authoring the book, Profiles in Character, with Jeb Bush.
Never far from public service, Yablonski sits as one of seven commissioners on the Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the state agency charged with protecting endangered species and regulating hunting and fishing activities in the state of Florida. He is an adjunct fellow with the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC), of Bozeman, Montana. The Center is the nation’s oldest and largest institute working to use market principles to solve environmental problems. In addition, Yablonski was appointed by the Florida Speaker of the House in 2007 to serve on the Florida Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, a constitutionally created body that meets once every 20 years to examine the state’s tax structure, and government efficiency and productivity. Finally, he is Florida’s representative on the Governor’s Council for the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.
Yablonski graduated with honors from Wake Forest University and the University of Miami School of Law, where he was a member of the University of Miami Law Review. Prior to practicing law, he served as a personal assistant in the White House to President George H.W. Bush from 1989 to 1990.
Dr. Zachariah P. Zachariah
Dr. Zachariah P. Zachariah is a member of the Board of Directors and Treasurer of the Foundation for Excellence in Education.
Dr. Zachariah is one of the leading cardiologists in the nation. He is President of the Fort Lauderdale Heart Institute, a thriving private practice with five cardiologists/physicians and 30 employees. He is the Director of Cardiology for Holy Cross Hospital, a 570 bed not-for-profit community hospital in Fort Lauderdale and serves as a volunteer Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Miami.
Dr. Zachariah serves on the Florida Board of Governors, which oversees the management of Florida’s university system, and a Trustee for Nova Southeastern University, the largest private university in the Southeast United States with more than 26,000 students. He is a member of the Council of 100, a statewide organization of business leaders who advise the Governor on issues of public policy. He is also a member and former Chairman of the Florida Council on Economic Education, a not-for-profit organization that educates students in kindergarten through high school on economic principles to better prepare them for personally and professional success in our free enterprise system.
Previously, Dr. Zachariah served on the Board of Medicine, where he held the positions of chairman and vice president. Zachariah attended University Intermediate College for Graduate Training, received an M.B.B.S. degree from Armed Forces Medical College in Poona, India and completed an internship at University Medical College in Trivandrum, India and an internship and residency at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center. He immigrated to the United States in 1972.