The Grand Rapids Community College Board of Trustees plan to decide on a presidential search firm at their next meeting Monday, May 16.
Director of Human Resources Cathy Kubiak, Director of Purchasing Mansfield Matthewson and trustees David Koetje and Deb Bailey and have selected four potential firms out of eight applicants. They will present their recommended firm to the board for approval at the meeting.
Bailey said the search firms under consideration charge between $45,000 to $100,000.
“It really is best practice to use a search firm,” Bailey said. “Anyone can just advertise positions and have it be a passive search but our goal is we want an expert that can really identify incredible candidates that are likely very happily employed somewhere else and not actively looking.”
Bailey said diversity is key in the search process. As a result, one of the firms is minority owned and one of them is female owned. The firms are all national and specialize in using networking to find community college presidential candidates around the country.
“We believe what we do is just as important as how we do it,” Bailey said.
The board and the screening committee will meet with the new firm June 6 to discuss what GRCC is looking for in the next president.
The board plans to select the next president by November. GRCC’s current president, Steven Ender, plans to retire next summer and will soon sign his last annual contract.
