Presidential Search Update

In the Fall 2002 issue of Berklee Today, it was announced that President Lee Eliot Berk will retire in June of 2004. A search committee chaired by Berklee trustee Neal Curtin is working to identify Berklee’s next president.

Curtin’s 12-member search committee, composed of trustees Luis Alvarez, Mike Dreese, William Holodnak, Allan McLean, Robert Morrison, Alan Reese, Watson Reid, and Sandra Uyterhoeven; faculty members Carl Beatty and Livingston Taylor; and Associate Provost Karen Zorn, has met nine times over the past year to create a profile of the ideal candidate. They recently held two days of meetings in which department chairs, faculty members, faculty union representatives, students, and others were invited to give input to the committee.

The executive search consulting firm EMN Witt/Kieffer is developing the pool of candidates and will present the names of those who are most qualified to the search committee. Curtin and company will then choose a handful of finalists by December 2003 and submit those names to the entire board of trustees in January.

Curtin is optimistic about the progress. “Some of the applicants for the position seem very well qualified,” he says. “We can fully assess how they stack up once we have interviewed them. We need a person who has the ability to bring the uniqueness of Berklee forward—a ‘superman’ or ‘superwoman’ to move Berklee beyond its present achievements toward future ones.”

Of course, music figures prominently into the equation for the choice of Berklee’s future president. “If a candidate is not a musician, he or she has to at least have a great appreciation for and sensitivity to music,” says Curtin. “It will be essential for the new president to understand the core mission of the college and to formulate ideas on advancing it.”

The committee’s goal has been to conduct the search in the most open manner possible, seeking input from all who want to participate. “We are grateful for all of the input we have gotten from those in the community who have attended our meetings and responded via the website,” Curtin says. “Our goal is to select someone who will be a complete success as an administrator and who will have credibility with the Berklee community. It is an awesome responsibility to identify and present such a person to the board of trustees.”

For forthcoming updates or to give input to Curtin and the search committee, visit www.berklee.edu/presidentialsearch/.