R. William Funk & Associates educational search firm in Dallas, Texas, has been chosen to assist the University in its search for presidential candidates.

The Presidential Candidate Search Committee of the Board of Trustees unanimously approved a motion that the Carolina Educational Foundation retain the firm during a March 18 conference call meeting. There was no discussion before the vote.

R. William Funk & Associates is recognized as a premier firm in recruitment of university and college presidents and chancellors, according to the board office. During the past 25 years, the firm's consultants have conducted more than 300 searches for presidents and chancellors of many of the nation's leading institutions of higher learning.

"We've passed our first major hurdle, and now we're ready to make some visible progress [in the search]," said Miles Loadholt, vice chair of the Board of Trustees and chair of the search committee. "We're just getting started, but the search is going to intensify and pick up the pace now that we've hired a consultant. We're ready to move."

Loadholt said the next step will be to meet with Funk at the committee's next meeting during the first week in April on a date to be announced. He added, however, that he doubted the University's next president, its 28th, could be on campus by the end of July. "That would be very optimistic," he said.

President Sorensen has said he will stay in his post past July 31 if more time is needed to select his successor.

But Loadholt said the committee was "moving along" in its work, "and we're ahead of both of those last two [presidential searches] as far as the time goes," he said.

Loadholt said the search committee reviewed four educational recruiting firms and had personal interviews with representatives of all four before deciding on Funk & Associates in its unanimous decision.

"Mr. Funk appeared to be very well connected across the country; he had conducted a number of these searches before; and he was instrumental in placing a number of college presidents in some outstanding schools around the country," Loadholt said. "I was personally impressed by his experience. He seemed very willing and seemed like he really wanted to help us."

The Chronicle of Higher Education has dubbed the founder and president of the firm, Bill Funk, as "the guru of higher education recruiting," according to an overview of the firm provided by the board office.

Among the nearly 70 currently sitting presidents recruited by the firm's principals are David Skorton at Cornell, France Cordova at Purdue, Donna Shalala at the University of Miami, James Barker at Clemson, James Oblinger at North Carolina State University, and Dan C. Mote at the University of Maryland. The firm is currently in the final stages of searches for a chancellor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a president for the University of California system.

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