The front man of UNM’s presidential search said he’s seen firsthand the difference education can make.
Alberto Pimentel, a managing partner of Storbeck, Pimentel and Associates, grew up in east Los Angeles, an area notorious for its poverty and high crime rates. English wasn’t Pimentel’s first language, and he and his siblings were the first in their family to go to college.
“Many of the guys you grow up with end up in jail, in gangs or dead,” he said. “As a young man, you look and you say ‘this isn’t right.’ … I helped at-risk kids that were brothers and sisters and nephews and nieces of the guys I hung out with.”
Pimentel said it was the need to give back that kept him in the field, and the ability to help students with similar backgrounds to his is something he values.
After receiving degrees from California State University, Point Loma Nazerene University and Harvard University, Pimentel said he returned to his roots to help at-risk K-12 students.
“I represent a lot of public universities that serve a diverse population and provide first-generation college students the opportunity to advance,” he said. “Those are important to me.”
UNM spokesperson Karen Wentworth said that Storbeck, Pimentel & Associates was selected to head the presidential search by a Request for Proposal (RFP) process. The committee aims to select a new president for the University by June 2012.
“Any firm who is interested in conducting a presidential search presents a proposal which outlines the cost of the search, what they would do, and how extensive it would be,” Wentworth said.
“The regents select from the bids that were presented.”
According to the proposed budget for the presidential search, the largest expense in the search itself comes from the direct fee paid to the consultants.
The document goes on to say that all search firms charge a percentage fee for their indirect expenses, which is generally 15 percent of the direct fee. UNM was able to negotiate the fee down to 12 percent.
Storbeck, Pimentel & Associates’ direct fee is about $130,000, which is about $66,000 less than was paid to Greenwood & Associates for the 2006 presidential search. The search will be paid for with University contingency funds.
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Pimentel said the UNM presidential search is not his first foray in the state. He was involved in recent searches for the director of Los Alamos National Labs. He said other consultants within his firm have worked on New Mexico education searches, but not at the presidential level.
“We limit the number (of searches in which we’re involved) because of the complexity of them,” Pimentel said. “Because of the complexity of reaching out and recruiting candidates, if (you) take on too many, it dilutes your ability to be in service to your client, but there are also conflicts. If I were doing another research university like UNM, it would be a problem.”
