News Updates

September 23, 2013 – Presidential Search Project Plan and Consultations

The Presidential Search Committee met at Trent on September 17, 2013 and made progress on several important items of business.  The Search Committee was assisted by its search consultant lead Malcolm Bernstein (Partner, Executive Search, Amrop Knightsbridge) with support from Dave Marshall (a member of Amrop Knightsbridge’s Academic Advisory Council).

The Search Committee came to consensus on the overall project plan and a preliminary timeline that, barring unforeseen contingencies, anticipates a recommendation to the Board of Governors in March for a July 1, 2014 appointment.   This timeline is being shared with the Trent community on the Presidential Search public website, and will be updated and refined as the process unfolds.

The Committee confirmed its commitment to outreach and consultation with Trent stakeholders, both internal and external, as a fundamental component of the presidential recruitment process.  This will build on and sharpen the work already done to develop the Presidential Mandate for 2014-2019.  Confidential consultations, facilitated by our search consultants, have already begun and will continue into October.  Plans are also underway for a series of open houses in the next three weeks that will be hosted by the Search Committee and open to students, faculty, staff and alumni for participation either in-person or via email.   Please watch for these dates, and plan to participate.

The feedback from these consultations will be aggregated and considered by the Search Committee in anonymized form, and in the short term will feed into development of a detailed Position Profile that we will take out to the market in mid-October.  In the longer term, this feedback will continue to inform the deliberations of the Search Committee as it moves into candidate shortlisting and interviewing.   In the meantime, if you have suggestions for possible candidates, please contact University Secretary Deb deBruijn (see contact information below) who will ensure these names are brought to the attention of our search consultants.

As always, if you have questions regarding the Search Committee or process, please direct these to Deb deBruijn, debdebruijn@trentu.ca or 705-748-1223.

Sincerely,

Bryan Davies

Chair, Presidential Search Committee

Chair, Executive Committee of the Board of Governors