University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

President John B. Simpson’s accomplishments, as well as his strong senior leadership team and UB 2020, all contribute to UB’s excellent chances of recruiting a strong successor to Simpson. Photo: DOUGLAS LEVERE

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  For more information on the search, visit the Presidential Search Committee’s website.

By SUE WUETCHER

Published: October 21, 2010

The search for UB’s next president has begun, and the chances of recruiting strong candidates to succeed President John B. Simpson are “outstanding.”

That’s the word from members of UB’s Presidential Search Committee and the search consultant.

“John Simpson’s accomplishments in his nearly seven years as president show that UB can attract a world-class leader,” says Jeremy M. Jacobs, chair of the UB Council and committee chair. “I’m confident that we can find someone who will not only continue John’s work, but will build and improve upon UB’s strategic vision.”

Search committee member Joseph A. Gardella Jr., John and Frances Larkin Professor of Chemistry, notes that UB has made significant strides as an institution in recent years.

“It’s widely respected at federal agencies that I work with in the sciences and engineering, it has great potential to move forward, and that’s an attractive aspect that would bring exciting leadership opportunities,” Gardella says. “And Buffalo, it’s such a great place to live and work,” he adds.

This is Diane Christian’s second go-round on a presidential search committee: She sat on the committee that recommended Simpson be named UB’s 14th president.

“One of the greatest pleasures of the search is taking our measure and trying to recruit,” says Christian, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of English. “I learned a great deal about UB the first time, and was really proud to present us to candidates. I feel now we're even better—on every measure.”

Christian admits that while she’s sad that Simpson is leaving UB, “I have no doubt that he leaves us in a very strong position to recruit his successor. We attracted top-notch candidates in the search seven years ago and I have no doubt we will again.”

And UB 2020 should prove to be a great incentive for any prospective president, committee members say.

“While having a blank slate may sound enticing, the fact we as a university have already spent more than five years planning and implementing the first parts of a shared vision will be attractive,” says A. Scott Weber, vice provost and dean for undergraduate education, and another presidential search veteran. “Of course, prospective candidates will want to input their own identity and vision to this process, but it will be much easier to accomplish future campus goals with our current momentum, compared to a campus that lacks a structured vision,” says Weber, professor of civil, structural and environmental engineering.

Adds Christian: “UB 2020 is a powerful vision and represents a clarity of self-knowledge and design for development that is rare and compelling.” 

Helping the search committee pull out those exceptional candidates from the larger pack is Ilene H. Nagel of Russell Reynolds Associates, UB’s consultant for the presidential search. Nagel, a former long-term academic, heads the Higher Education Practice for Russell Reynolds and has completed numerous senior leadership searches for UB.

Nagel calls UB’s chances of recruiting strong candidates in its search for a new president “outstanding.”

“This is a very attractive presidency,” she says, “because the university is in good shape, and because the new president will be following a successful president who’s assembled a very strong team, and because you have an exciting strategic plan and the plan has been embraced by the larger community.

“Those are all good things,” she says.

Other factors Nagel cites as being in UB’s favor are its membership in the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU) and its standing as the largest and most comprehensive campus within the SUNY system.

Moreover, in the past five years, UB has been able to recruit “an amazing cadre of outstanding individuals” for its leadership team, “almost every one of whom came from an institution that is even more highly ranked than UB,” she says. Among those examples are medical school dean Michael Cain (former chair of cardiology at Washington University in St. Louis), engineering dean Harvey Stenger (former engineering dean at Lehigh) and management dean Arjang Assad (former senior associate dean of the business school at the University of Maryland).

“Across the board, UB has been able to recruit people from the very best institutions who are themselves enormously productive research scholars,” she says, calling the chances of recruiting comparable candidates for the presidential position “very good.”

To find those candidates, the search firm will reach out to academic leaders at other AAU research universities, including provosts and chief academic officers; vice presidents for research and health sciences; and deans of schools such as engineering, law, medicine, business, and arts and sciences, and the like.

Nagel notes that search committee members have indicated they are amenable to considering “non-traditional” candidates—individuals at academic-like institutions, such as think tanks or federal commissions—albeit they prefer that all candidates possess a PhD or a comparable advanced degree, such as a JD or MD, as well as a record of scholarship commensurate to an appointment to full professor with tenure.

Nagel acknowledges that it can be challenging in a weak economy to recruit presidents for any institution, public or private, since two of a president’s chief tasks—raising money and managing a budget—are harder in a down economy. But New York’s budget crisis should not be a deterrent, she says, noting that all states—California in particular—face equally challenging situations.

“Of course, it’s easier to recruit during a strong economy,” she noted, “when the focus is on building and hiring, rather than managing budgetary cuts. The strong candidates, though, are people like John Simpson, who are committed to building a great university and have the vision and the determination to do just that, in good times or less-good times.

Weber points out that while the search process has many important steps,” in reality, it distills down to the search committee being a conduit between the UB community and the candidates.”

“Thus, you have this unique opportunity to not only share UB’s current vision for the future, but also to hear the aspirations of candidates,” he says. “This melding and fusion of ideas for the future of UB is the exciting part of the search process and is usually what separates exceptional candidates from good candidates.” 

Nagel says defining UB’s aspirations with input from members of the university community will be a key component of the search. Town hall meetings will be held on all three campuses to solicit feedback from faculty, staff and students. Pre-registration is requested for these sessions.

“Listening sessions” will be held:

• Downtown Campus: 4 p.m. Oct. 26, Zebro Room, UB’s New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, 701 Ellicott St.
• North Campus: 4 p.m. Nov. 1, Screening Room, Center for the Arts.
• South Campus: 8:30 a.m. Nov. 3, 105 Harriman Hall.

In these listening sessions, the search committee “will look to the community to say what they want UB’s new president to accomplish in the first year, after three years, after five years, and what kind of experiences they want the person to bring to the position,” she says. It then will be the committee’s job to focus on candidates with successful track records in those areas.

“The search committee drives the decision-making process,” she says, noting her role as consultant is to provide strategic choices for the committee’s consideration.

“Our goal,” she said, “is to have the committee tell us that the pool (of candidates) is so strong that they have difficulty narrowing the choices.”

Nagel says the initial pool of candidates will include nominations from campus stakeholders and others, as well as individuals identified through “source calls” made by the consultant. Once the pool is developed, the search committee will decide which individuals to meet for confidential, off-campus interviews. Confidentiality—from the inception of the search to its closure—is the best way to recruit the strongest candidate pool and ensure a successful process, Nagel stresses.

At the conclusion of its interview process, which may involve multiple rounds, the search committee will recommend a list of qualified candidates to the UB Council. The council then makes its recommendation to SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher for consideration by the SUNY Board of Trustees, which makes the formal appointment.

While senior leadership searches often can take a year or longer, Nagel expects that this search can be concluded sooner because of the strength of UB’s reputation for academic excellence.