AUCA President's message on the presidential search

December 16, 2021

Dear AUCA Community Members,

I write to update you on the AUCA presidential search as was discussed yesterday with the faculty Senate and today at the general faculty meeting.
We are excited to be moving forward in earnest on the recruitment. Drawing on consultation from the AUCA community, a position profile has been developed. It is attached here and the search website can be visited at https://www.imsearch.com/search-detail/S8-276

The Board is meeting next week to finalize the constitution of the search committee. We are working with the international search firm Isaacson, Miller on the presidential recruitment. We are in the process of setting up meetings for IM partner Sean Farrell and his associate Raul Bernal to meet with the Academic Senate and other stakeholders. Additional details will be forthcoming.
Thank you to those of you who have already made nominations. We will be sharing the position profile with those individuals and inviting them to explore the opportunity with us. I also encourage you to share additional thoughts or nominations via the website. Your help in this regard is incredibly valuable.

While, as it typical in presidential recruitments, ads are being placed in the Chronicle of Higher Education (US), Times Higher Education (UK) and other global publications; most often the best candidates do not come not from applications to passive advertisements but rather from active recruitment. Many of the best potential candidates we will be looking to recruit are likely currently gainfully employed elsewhere and not necessarily applying to job ads. However, by affirmative outreach and creating the opportunity for them to learn more about the AUCA opportunity, the extraordinary work that is taking place here and the opportunity to make a major contribution as AUCA’s next President, such individuals will become engaged in exploring this opportunity with us.

Over the next several months, we will be engaged in an affirmative recruitment process to build a deep, diverse, excellent pool; to review and interview candidates and identify the next President of AUCA. Much as we will be learning more and more about the candidates as the recruitment moves forward; they in turn will be learning more and more about AUCA as the recruitment progresses. While we will be developing an excellent pool and selecting the best next leader for AUCA; our candidates and ultimately our next president will be learning more about the AUCA presidential opportunity and in the end making an affirmative decision to move their career and life to Bishkek and join us as a professional colleague and neighbor.

We seek to set up a process that welcomes as much input as possible at the front end of the process and we will again seek your assistance as we enter the finalist phase of the search. In the middle part of the search, in order to attract the best candidates, confidentiality within the search committee will be key. As I am sure you can appreciate, many people who are in highly responsible roles, such as President, Provost and Dean of other leading universities will be exploring the opportunity with us under assurances of confidentiality through the finalist phase of the search, at which time the circle widens for broader engagement with and input from the AUCA community. We look forward to keeping you updated as the search progresses.

Thank you again for your engagement and help in the important work ahead.

Best regards,
Jonathan Becker

Follow a link to download AUCA president scope of requirements

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