Greenwood/Asher & Associates Inc., an executive search firm, will aid in finding candidates for university President Dan Mote’s replacement, search committee Chairman Don Kettl announced in an e-mail to the university community Sunday night.
The firm, which boasts its consultants have completed more than 500 successful searches, would help in a number of ways, including handling paperwork and speaking with candidates who prefer to interact with a search firm to maintain their confidentiality, Kettl said. The firm will also draw on its knowledge of candidates and check references, he added.
“There’s a lot of things that would either be impossible or very difficult for members of the committee to do,” Kettl said.
The 19-member search committee is composed of faculty and staff members, two students, donors and a member of the Board of Regents. The committee will submit three to five presidential candidates to the university system. Final approval rests with the regents, the 17-member body that sets system policy.
The firm was one of several interested in taking on the task of finding a new president, Kettl said. Greenwood/Asher was chosen due to the strength of its proposal and a subsequent interview, as well as the experience of its partners, he said. He declined to say how many other firms submitted proposals or how much the firm’s services would cost.
“We are very much looking forward to working with Greenwood/Asher, which has an outstanding history of successful high-level searches,” Kettl wrote in the e-mail.
The firm, which is based in Miramar Beach, Fla., has previously assisted with the searches for new presidents of Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia State University, among others. The firm also helped to replace libraries Dean Patricia Steele at Indiana University after she left to work at this university.
Jan Greenwood, the firm’s president and CEO, served as the 22nd president of Longwood University — the first woman to do so — from 1981 to 1987.
A representative of the firm could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Nominations for presidential candidates can be sent to the search committee at presidentsearch@umd.edu or to the search firm, Kettl wrote in the e-mail. The firm’s partners can be reached by e-mail at jangreenwood@greenwoodsearch.com and bettyasher@greenwoodsearch.com or by phone at (850) 650-2277.
cox at umdbk dot com
