Board of Curators search for president
Board will work with firm to help select a new president.
Published Jan. 23, 2007
The search for a new UM system president can now begin because the Board of Curators chose an executive search firm, Baker-Parker, to facilitate the process of finding outgoing President Elson Floyd's successor.
Floyd announced his resignation Dec. 13 when he accepted a job at Washington State University.
"The board was impressed with the credentials, track record and vision of Baker-Parker," board chairman Don Walsworth stated in a press release. "We are pleased to engage them to work with us in recruiting a president to lead a great university system."
An executive search firm is "someone to help you through the process," said Maria Kerford, student representative to the Board of Curators.
Kerford said the job of a search firm is to take care of some of the administrative as well as the legal aspects of the hiring process.
A representative of the firm who talked to the curators "had some really good ideas of how to involve faculty, staff and students," Kerford said.
Baker-Parker's mission statement on its Web site is "to exceed our client's expectations with innovative and proactive search solutions."
UM system spokesman Scott Charton said there is not yet a timeline set for the selection of a new president.
"The hope is to find a qualified individual as soon as possible," Kerford said.
She said the last discussion about the replacement president took place in closed session when the curators interviewed the search firms.
The board is scheduled to discuss further the replacement president at a meeting on Thursday morning in St. Louis. It will discuss the qualities the curators are looking for in a new president.
"That type of discussion would be inappropriate for closed session," Kerford said.
The board will welcome comments and participation from university constituencies including students, faculty, staff and alumni during the search process, Walsworth stated in a press release.
Kerford said students could give comments to her or to students on the advisory committee.
She said the most important qualities of a president are to be a good listener and to practice "servant-leadership," which is a style of leadership in which the leader "focuses on fulfilling the highest-priority needs of others first."
Kerford describes the style as collaborative rather than hierarchical and said listening is a key part of the style.
"Not that you're going to agree with what everyone says or do what everyone says," she said. "A president must be open to hearing students' ideas."
Faculty council Chairman Rex Campbell said the council met with Walsworth on Friday to discuss what the faculty would like to see in a president.
"Most of us have high regard for President Floyd," Campbell said.
He said Floyd exhibited excellent leadership skills and was willing to make hard decisions, both qualities the faculty would like to see in the new president.
Charton said the last time the board chose a new president was when it selected Floyd in 2002. He said they had much more time because the previous president, Manuel Pacheco, was retiring rather than moving to a new job.
Former UM system spokesman Joe Moore said the interviews were conducted in closed sessions until the end stages of the process.
"In order to get the best candidates for a position with that level of public profile, it is often helpful to allow candidates to apply without their current employers necessarily being aware that they're looking at another position," Moore said. "Allowing them to apply in closed session makes them feel more comfortable with the interview process."
He said the closed session process sounds very similar to the current process.
Moore said Ken Hutchinson, former vice president of Human Resources, and former Curator Paul Steele headed the committee to find a new president.
Steele and Hutchinson, as well as former curators Anne Ream and Angela Bennett, could not be reached for comment.
