About the College

John McKibbon

John McKibbon is a service-oriented business leader whose livelihood lies in making travelers comfortable.

In 2013, he made a multi-million-dollar gift to the Muma College of Business’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. The gift established the M3 Center for Hospitality Technology on USF’s Sarasota-Manatee campus and the McKibbon Endowed Chair.

The mission of the M3 Center is to enable and conduct rigorous academic research of significance to the global hospitality industry, while fostering partnerships between USF, other universities and hospitality students. Its focus is on advancing groundbreaking educational technologies and learning tools in hotel accounting, property management systems and business intelligence software.

The gift created the M3 Scholars program, in which master’s level students serve as graduate assistants. McKibbon’s donation further underwrites student and faculty participation in national and international conferences and training and creates opportunities for the school to host visiting faculty from around the globe for shared research, teaching and learning.

McKibbon is chief executive officer of McKibbon Hotel Group, chairman of the McKibbon Hotel Management and president of parent company McKibbon Brothers, all privately held, family-run companies.  McKibbon is a third-generation entrepreneur hotelier.

Since taking over the family business in 1991, he has grown McKibbon Hospitality into an award-winning leader in the hospitality development, operations and management industry. He actively supports various non-profits, particularly those in the communities where he and his staff live and work. He empowers every McKibbon associate to do the same.