FSU Alumni Association

This Year's Honoree

Named for the 10th president of Florida State University, the Bernard F. Sliger Award is the single highest honor given by the FSU Alumni Association. This award recognizes a member of the university community who has made a major contribution toward the fulfillment of the mission of Florida State University. Winners of the Bernard F. Sliger Award, named below, are automatically accorded membership into the Circle of Gold.


 

Peter Collins Headshot

 Peter Collins 

   (B.S. ’92, MBA ’97), College of Business

   Tampa, Florida

Peter Collins is co-founder and managing principal of Forge Capital Partners LLC, a diversified real estate investment management company in the southeast United States. Collins directs all private equity activities for Forge and is the CEO of Forge’s real estate private equity fund business. Over the last 20 years, Collins has overseen more than $1.5 billion of real estate and corporate transactions, including over eight million square feet of commercial and residential development, acquisitions and dispositions. Collins is the chair of the Florida State University Board of Trustees. Previously, he served as a trustee of the Florida State University Foundation, chair of the FSU Endowment and member of the Executive Committee of the FSU College of Business Board of Governors. Collins is the longest-serving member of the State of Florida Pension Investment Advisory Council and serves on the Board of the Florida Council and is active with the Urban Land Institute, the Southern Region Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America and is currently President of the Greater Tampa Bay Area Council. An Eagle Scout, Collins has served as the Area 4 (State of Florida) President and is a past member of the BSA National Foundation Board of Directors and former chairman of the BSA National Foundation’s Investment Committee. Collins also received the BSA’s prestigious Silver Beaver, Silver Antelope and National Outstanding Eagle Scout awards.


Recipients of the Bernard F. Sliger Award

Bernard F. Sliger- 1993
Bobby Bowden- 1994
Daisey Parker Flory- 1995
Katherine Blood Hoffman- 1996
Reubin O' D. Askew- 1997
W. Godfrey Smith- 1998
Burt Reynolds- 1999
George R. Langford- 2000
John E. Champion- 2001
John E. Thrasher- 2002
Jim Smith- 2003
Mike Martin- 2004
James E. Joanos- 2005
J. Stanley Marshall- 2006
Andy Miller- 2007
Talbot D' Alemberte- 2008
William M. Durham Jr.- 2009
Lawrence G. Abele- 2010
Leslie Pantin- 2011
James E. Pitts- 2012
W. Andrew Haggard- 2013
T.K. Wetherall- 2014  
Betty Lou Joanos- 2015
William Proctor- 2016  
Charles Ehrhardt- 2017  
Mart Hill- 2018  
Melvin Stith- 2019  
Freddie Groomes-McLendon- 2020  
Edward E. Burr- 2021  
Sally Karioth- 2022
Peter Collins- 2023