(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
This story was originally published by Iowa Capital Dispatch and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Iowa Board of Regents talks ISU president search with chosen search firm • Iowa Capital Dispatch [1]

['Brooklyn Draisey', 'More From Author', '- June', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width']

Date: 2025-06-10

After announcing the committee and search firm set to seek out Iowa State University’s next president, the Iowa Board of Regents heard from a former university president and search expert on the process and pitfalls of such an undertaking.

Roderick McDavis, managing principal of AGB Search and former Ohio University President, spoke to the Board of Regents at its June 10 meeting about best practices when searching for a new university president. The national higher education search firm, based in Washington, D.C., was announced June 9 as the firm selected to assist ISU in finding a replacement for current president Wendy Wintersteen, who will retire in January 2026.

The firm has previously worked with each university governed by the regents to find new leaders, McDavis said, adding that he is excited to collaborate with the board, its staff and university members once again.

“We think you have three great public institutions in the state of Iowa, and you folks are unique,” McDavis said. “We’ve worked with a lot of different states across the country, but in Iowa, we think you folks get it right, and I want to commend you as a board for ensuring that you have three high quality institutions that are run well, and that you have a board that embraces those institutions and supports them in the way that they should be supported.”

A former University of Iowa president, Sally Mason, has worked at AGB for nine years and currently serves as a senior executive search consultant, which McDavis said is an honor.

To conduct a presidential search “the right way,” McDavis said, the timeline should stretch across five or six months, and the firm, board and others involved in the search must be on the same page about jobs and expectations. Confidentiality must also be maintained until the proper time. Mark Braun, the board’s executive director, said finalists’ names will be released when the individuals come to campus for forums.

Before the candidates come into play, McDavis said, the involved parties will create a leadership profile to serve as the search’s “north star.” The profile determines what kind of person is being sought for the position — such as their qualities, skills and qualifications — and describes the position being applied for and the institution itself.

“It serves two purposes,” McDavis said. “One, it lets people know what the qualifications are for the position, but secondly, it’s also a marketing tool. There’s a lot of information there about the institution, about its vision, about where it’s headed. So, it entices people to get interested in the institution, not just because of the position, but because of where that institution is going.”

From there, candidates will apply or be nominated for the position and applicants will be reviewed by members of the search committee, semifinalists will be identified and interviewed, then narrowed down to finalists. The firm will also assist in developing a transition plan for ISU for the period before and after Wintersteen departs, and for a time into the new president’s tenure.

According to a news release from the Iowa Board of Regents, AGB will receive the equivalent of 25% of the appointed president’s initial base salary as payment for its services, as well as the value of any expenses.

The board also released the list of those included in the presidential search committee — a 12-member group charged with recommending candidates to the board for further consideration. Regent JC Risewick and ISU Faculty Senate President Meghan Gillette will co-chair the committee, which also includes other board members, representatives from ISU undergraduate and graduate student governments, faculty, alumni and more.

Full list of search committee members: Regent JC Risewick, Iowa Board of Regents

ISU Faculty Senate President Meghan Gillette

Iowa Board of Regents President Pro Tem Greta Rouse

Regent Robert Cramer

Regent Kurt Tjaden

ISU Student Government President Colby Brandt

ISU Graduate and Professional Student Senate President Muhammad Azhan

ISU Professional and Scientific Council President-Elect Jennifer Schroeder

ISU professor Tim Day

ISU professor Patrick Schnable

ISU alum Cara Heiden

ISU alum Roger Underwood

McDavis said it is important for each of the parties involved in the search, from the Board of Regents to the search committee and other consultants, to have well-defined roles laid out early in order to avoid any confusion later in the process. The board’s role is to find a search firm, appoint a search committee chair and members, interview finalists for the position, negotiate a contract and hire the preferred candidate, he said.

“The role of the search committee, which we like to repeat often, is not to make decisions about who the next president will be, but to make recommendations to the board so the board can do its work in terms of selecting the next president of the institution,” McDavis said.

Other committee tasks include helping to develop the leadership profile, approving the search timeline, reviewing candidates and interviewing semifinalists before sending candidates to the board.

The chair of the search committee will be the one to make any statements on its behalf, McDavis said, and a board professional will serve as a point of contact between the board, committee and search consultants, and will handle setting up listening sessions, creating the leadership profile, developing processes for application, setting up a candidate pool, conducting reference checks and more.

Previous searches at other universities have seen problems when people are confused about their responsibilities, McDavis said, or when people try to change or add to the criteria already identified as pointing to a good candidate. When not everyone is in agreement on processes and policies, he said it can cause friction and frustration.

Other problems that McDavis said he’s seen in presidential searches can come from outside influence, including situations in which a politician wants to see a certain candidate move through the ranks, and from the candidates themselves when they wait to disclose concerns about relocating with partners and families.

“As long as everyone stays in their particular lane, searches tend to run very, very well,” McDavis said.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2025/06/10/iowa-board-of-regents-talks-isu-president-search-with-chosen-search-firm/

Published and (C) by Iowa Capital Dispatch
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND-NC 4.0.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/iowacapitaldispatch/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.