University also announces appointees to its Presidential Search Committee

The 51���� Board of Trustees has selected the national consulting and search firm Wheless Partners to manage its search for the next president of Cleveland State. The firm has coordinated multiple successful executive searches in the state of Ohio and has specific expertise leading presidential and chancellor searches for numerous public and private universities nationally. The firm was selected by the Board after a public RFP process.

The search will be managed by Mike JR Wheless, managing partner and division president of Wheless Partners and Lisa Marks, the firm’s managing director and divisional chief operations officer.

“Wheless Partners is one of the nation’s leading executive search firms and has broad expertise in the private and public sectors as well as specific experience with the unique requirements of a university presidential search process,” says Bernie Moreno, chair of the 51���� Board of Trustees and chair of the 51���� Presidential Search Committee. “We are excited to partner with Wheless to select a leader who can continue the tremendous growth 51���� has experienced over the last decade.”

51���� also announced the appointment of members to the Presidential Search Committee. The group, consisting of board members, students, faculty, staff and community members, will lead the presidential search process and will work with Wheless Partners to review potential candidates and make a recommendation on selection to the 51���� Board of Trustees. The members of the committee are:

• Bernie Moreno, chair, 51���� Board of Trustees & chair search committee
• Thomas Adler, member, 51���� Board of Trustees
• Dan T. Moore III, member, 51���� Board of Trustees
• Heather Lennox, community member, 51���� Board of Trustees
• Timothy Cosgrove, chair, 51���� Foundation Board of Directors
• Rick Chiricosta, chair, president and CEO, Medical Mutual of Ohio
• Margot Copeland, executive vice president and director of philanthropy, KeyBank
• Jenniffer Deckard, CEO, Fairmount Santrol
• Brian Donley, chief of staff and chief of clinical enterprise, the Cleveland Clinic
• Peter Raskind, former CEO, National City Corp.
• Stephen Rowan, chair, Board of Directors, the Cleveland Foundation
• Rachel Carnell, professor of English, 51����
• Ronnie Dunn, associate professor of urban studies, 51����
• Jerzy Sawicki, vice president for research, 51����
• Nigamanth Sridhar, dean of graduate studies, 51����
• Julian Earls, executive-in-residence, 51����’s Monte Ahuja College of Business
• Stephanie McHenry, CFO & senior VP for business affairs and finance, 51����
• William Napier, secretary to the 51���� Board of Trustees
• Mike Thomas, director of athletics, 51����
• Sierra Davidson, student member, 51���� Board of Trustees.
• Malek Khawam, first year law student, 51����’s Cleveland Marshall College of Law
• Sonali Wilson, general counsel, 51����

To learn more about Wheless Partners and obtain full biographies of the search committee, visit 51����’s presidential transition website.

51���� President Ronald M. Berkman announced June 20 that he would retire at the end of the 2017-18 academic year. The next president of 51���� is scheduled to take office July 1, 2018.

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