CLIENT BACKGROUND AND CHALLENGE
A private Jesuit university that recently integrated another university into its fold had promoted its current Provost to President and charged her with leading its next chapter of growth and success. As a result, the University needed to secure a new Provost who would provide exemplary academic leadership, have a record of academic achievement, a keen focus on the student experience, and have deep expertise in university merger integration. The next Provost also had to share the university’s strong Jesuit ideals.
CCI SOLUTION
The Provost would be responsible for mapping out all academic programs, developing a long term strategy and planning, inspiring students and faculty, maximizing efficiencies in the newly integrated colleges, and working closely with the President. With the university’s recent expansion of two new locations and the addition of several new programs in pharmaceutical and health sciences, CCI conducted its search by targeting candidates at both private and public universities who had an affinity to the Jesuit mission of education, strong academic credentials, business acumen, proven Dean leadership, and the ability to execute a strategic plan. Working in full partnership with the President, the search committee, and other key stakeholders, CCI followed its engagement methodology, quickly identified over 200 potential candidates nationally, and began vetting all candidates against the needs of the role. The client was presented with a slate of actionable candidates within 45 days.
RESULTS
With CCI’s close counsel and guidance to the search committee, The University’s Provost’s search was successfully completed in under four months, a feat that significantly outpaced industry standards for this type of search. The selected candidate, who had spent nearly three decades in higher education and brought a wealth of academic leadership expertise, having previously led as a Dean, Associate Dean of Budget and Finance, and Department Chair, demonstrated a strong alignment with the university’s culture. Most importantly, she exhibited the personal and leadership attributes that were deemed critical for success in this role.
Feedback from the search committee and the candidate pool was overwhelmingly positive, underscoring the importance of CCI’s process rigor, expertise, and
professionalism. This feedback highlighted that CCI’s approach created a uniquely collaborative, transparent experience for the executive hiring team and executive candidates. The client was particularly impressed with CCI’s attention to detail, personalized and consistent communication, direct involvement with on campus interviews, and well-prepared candidate briefs.
