About

Paul N. Friga, PhD, is a leading thought leader and strategist in higher education, with 35 years of experience as a professor, researcher, and consultant at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill and Indiana University. His extensive experience in academia provides him with a deep understanding of both how education functions and how it must evolve. Additionally, his previous roles as a consultant with PwC (where he earned CPA and CMA designations) and McKinsey (including higher education projects) broaden his expertise. Friga currently serves as a senior consultant at the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB), specializing in strategy development, mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships. He is also a clinical professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Over the past decade, Friga has researched strategic resource allocation best practices in higher education, presenting his findings at international conferences and co-founding ABC Insights, a prominent higher education benchmarking consortium aimed at increasing efficiency and effectiveness in universities. In 2020, HelioCampus acquired ABC Insights. Over the last five years, Friga has authored or been featured in over 20 articles and hosted numerous webinars for the Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, and other journals/associations, providing strategic guidance to position universities for long-term success. His strategic planning experience includes numerous projects and retreats for universities, notprofits, and corporations.

An accomplished author, Friga has written two best-selling books on team problem-solving (The McKinsey Mind and The McKinsey Engagement) and is an award-winning strategy and consulting professor for undergraduate, MBA, and executive students. He is deeply committed to helping higher education institutions transform and achieve greatness.

Professional Credentials

Friga also served as a trustee at Saint Francis University, has chaired the board at Saints Francis and Clare Church in Greenwood, Indiana, and is on the executive board of the Rams Club and the board of directors of Carolina Alumni at UNC Chapel Hill.

He holds an MBA (Beta Gamma Sigma) and a PhD in Strategy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His undergraduate degree is from Saint Francis University, where he graduated magna cum laude with a double major in management and accounting.