University of Wisconsin’s Chancellor Search and Screen Committee has commissioned an outside firm in hopes of alleviating difficulties in the search process.
According to Committee Chair David McDonald, the university will be working in conjunction with the executive search firm, Storbeck/Pimentel and Associates, based in Pennsylvania, in an effort to find a replacement for Interim Chancellor David Ward, whose two-year term will come to an end by July.
McDonald said the university looked specifically for firms specializing in higher education hires and chose Storbeck/Pimentel and Associates due to their previous successes.
“You need help when it comes to higher education because of the demand [of the number of candidates],” McDonald said. “We looked for people who had a good record of success with appointing people at our level.”
According to McDonald, Storbeck/Pimentel and Associates has helped other universities of a similar caliber choose their presidents, such as the University of Michigan.
There were several factors that led to the committee’s decision of Storbeck/Pimentel and Associates as the executive search firm for the UW, McDonald said, stressing the firm’s high success rate, persuasiveness, professionalism and commitment to selecting a diverse pool of candidates.
According to McDonald, diversity is a “very important consideration” for the university.
Storbeck/Pimentel and Associate’s spokesperson for UW’s chancellor search, Charles Bunting, said their firm is one of the largest higher education search firms nationally, focusing mainly on president or chancellor positions.
According to Bunting, the firm has a large number of networks available to it, which will help its members identify the ideal candidate.
Bunting said the first task is for the UW search committee to determine what qualifications it is searching for in potential candidates. The firm, however, will also call upon various sources who “themselves might have good ideas for candidates,” Bunting added.
“We will hit up private foundations or government foundations, national associations at universities or other organizations of that type,” Bunting said. “Then, in addition, we have our own networks from all of the searches we do, and so we’ll be looking at all of this in terms of reaching out.”
Because of these networks, the firm can identify good candidates the university might not be able to find, McDonald said.
McDonald added that in addition to setting up interviews and connections, the firm will also be managing the large amounts of paperwork and administrative work associated with the incoming candidate nominations.
Despite the firm’s work, however, Bunting emphasized UW’s decisions will remain to be its own, as Storbeck/Pimentel and Associates works “side by side” with their clients.
“Basically, our philosophy is that we are in partnership with the university on any search, but ultimately the search is the university’s and the university’s system’s search, not ours,” said Bunting.
The committee must propose no less than five candidates for Ward’s approval by February, McDonald said.
