CLIENT: Prestigious Business School

EXECUTIVES: Leadership Team

BUSINESS UNIT: Exec. Ed.

Recruiting Challenge: Prestigious Business School Seeks a New Executive Director of Executive Education 

Following a Departure from the Current Position Holder, the Urgency to Hire Another Executive Director of Executive Education Arises

Rice Cohen International recently partnered with one of the top 15 business schools in the nation to fill the position of Executive Director of Executive Education. The team at Rice Cohen has previously filled this position once, but the candidate of choice, after a successful tenure, went on to be the Chief People Officer at a F500 airline. The University tried to fill this position themselves this time around and were ultimately unsuccessful, and when they realized the difficulty of the search, they reached out to the team at RCI once again. 

Searching for a Credible Leader Skilled in Leading a Team and Strengthening Open Enrollment

Conducting a preliminary assessment of our client’s needs it was clear that any qualified candidate would have to have previously held a leadership position within a school or university. It was also apparent any qualified candidate must be familiar with both custom and open enrollment programming as the client felt their open enrollment strategy could be stronger. The client really wanted this candidate to be a highly credible leader. Two of the people who would report to this candidate had been with the university between 10-15 years and had also vied for the role, which created a challenging dynamic. After being turned down for the opening our client wanted to make sure these two employees could be retained, so the importance of finding a highly credible leader who could build trust was of the utmost importance.

After Conducting the Initial Phases of the Search Process, RCI was Able to Provide an Exemplary Slate of Qualified Candidates

Rice Cohen International sourced a total of 165 potential candidates. The recruiter assigned to the search performed a deep scan of the market and spoke in further detail with 53 potential candidates. Out of that group a total of 12 qualified candidates were presented to and interviewed by our client. The interview process concluded with the two final candidates being brought onto campus for an in-person interview. They did have a third candidate they were holding, who they were also extremely pleased with their potential candidacy if either of the two finalists fell out. The hiring committee would have hired both candidates but eventually they were able to select their preferred candidate. RCI successfully completed a secondary goal in closing the search within 90 days or less, the search started on October 5^th and was officially closed on December 31^st.