Courting a new president

On July 19, Regent Board President Jack Fortner named the members of the search committee who will help choose UNM’s next president, and a firm hired to find candidates, Storbeck/Pimentel & Associates (SPA), began its search.

Case Manager Alberto Pimentel said the search’s first phase uses web-based surveys to identify the qualifications UNM wants for its next president.

“Think of this whole process as courtship,” he said. “This phase of the process is like a first date.”

The search firm then evaluates candidates, during which it performs preliminary background checks through Google and Nexus Lexus searches. The committee reviews candidates’ profiles before narrowing the applicant pool.

SPA will be paid 30 percent of the new president’s first year base salary, plus other expenses, to help find candidates who the search committee will decide on, said Helen Gonzales, vice president for Human Resources.

During the search for President Schmidly, UNM paid Greenwood and Associates, another search firm, one-third of Schmidly’s base salary, $127,000, according to UNM spokesperson Susan McKinsey.

She said UNM used a search firm for previous executive and medical position searches. This is the first year UNM will work with SPA.

Pimentel said UNM candidate names will not be released until after the search committee conducts private interviews. He said the committee will whittle the list down to about five people, who will then do a public interview. Ultimately, Pimentel said, the regents choose UNM’s next president.

UNM spokeswoman Susan McKinsey said the Board of Regents will negotiate the president’s salary with candidates.

Gonzales said a president should be selected by early 2012.

On the Presidential Search Committee:

Regents:
Don Chalmers
Jamie Koch
Jack Fortner

Deans:
James Lin­nell, Col­lege of Fine Arts
Nancy Ride­nour, Col­lege of Nurs­ing

Faculty
Jane Slaugh­ter – His­tory and com­mit­tee vice chair
Bar­bara McCrady – Psy­chol­ogy
Tim Ross – Engi­neer­ing and Fac­ulty Sen­ate Pres­i­dent
Antoinette Sedillo Lopez – Law
David Gon­za­les – Inter­nal Med­i­cine
Tim Castillo – Archi­tec­ture and Plan­ning
Cedric Page – UNM-Los Alamos

Staff
Paul Krebs – Ath­let­ics
Andrew Cullen – Plan­ning, Bud­get and Analy­sis
Pam Agoyo – Amer­i­can Indian Stu­dent Ser­vices
Scott Car­reathers – African Amer­i­can Stu­dent Ser­vices
Mary Clark -Staff Coun­cil

Organizations:
Katie Richard­son – GPSA pres­i­dent
Jaymie Roy­bal – ASUNM pres­i­dent

Com­mu­nity mem­bers:
San­dra Begay-Campbell – for­mer UNM regent, alumna and Foun­da­tion Board mem­ber
Mary Tor­res – Albu­querque attor­ney
Randy Briggs – WNMU regent pres­i­dent
Gig Brum­mell – alum­nus and San­dia Foun­da­tion vice chair
Sher­man McCorkle – San­dia Sci­ence and Tech­nol­ogy Park board chair
Robert Rose­brough – alum­nus and for­mer Gallup mayor
David Seely – Kirt­land Fed­eral Credit Union pres­i­dent
Pat Rogers – alum­nus and Albu­querque attorney.