The board of trustees could announce UW’s next president as early as December or January—a month or two sooner than the original timeline suggested.
Alberto Pimentel, who will represent the consultant firm Storbeck Pimentel throughout the presidential search, said an earlier decision could help lock in the board’s top choice.
“There’s going to be half a dozen universities who are going to be competitive to the University of Wyoming that will be announcing their presidential searches in the next several weeks,” Pimentel said. “If we all get started searching at the same time, it would be in our best interest to conclude our process before the others do. It would give us the strongest pick of the candidates.”
He said that after the holiday season, candidates are more likely to receive or accept counter-offers. Also, at that point in the search process, the final candidates will be made public, so the sooner UW makes its decision, the less exposure those finalists face at their respective institutions.
“The board has always been willing to modify the process,” Chad Baldwin, director of institutional communications, said.
The search timeline, released by the board earlier this summer, was meant more as a guideline for the order of steps toward picking a new president and as a demonstration of openness to the community.
The timeline established two search committees—each comprised of board members, faculty, staff, students and other individuals from the community—to involve university constituencies in process.
The first committee will collect a list of 10 to 12 candidates and the second will narrow that pool to five or fewer. Pimentel and search recruiter Brad Mead will provide continuity between the otherwise mutually exclusive groups.
Pimentel said those candidates could come from unexpected places.
“We’re going to be looking at candidates coming from the field of education as well as those from non-traditional backgrounds such as industry, business,” he said. “Individuals may come out of government, non-profit or other sectors not directly tied to education. I think that will pose a very dynamic opportunity for the committees.”
