Wednesday, June 06, 2007
DRI hires firm to find new director
Downtown Roanoke Inc. is looking for someone to replace David Diaz, who left in May.
The latest from The Ticker blog
Downtown Roanoke Inc. is launching a nationwide search for a new executive director and has hired a Chicago-based firm, DHR International, to help drum up potential candidates.
The downtown business advocacy group is looking for someone to replace former executive director David Diaz, who left in May to take a similar position in Raleigh, N.C., a city nearly three times Roanoke's size.
The candidate search may take anywhere from 90 to 100 days if all goes smoothly, said the firm's executive vice president, David Smith, who is based in Pittsburgh.
The firm will be paid a fee equal to 25 percent of the hire's base starting salary, which in this case would be no less than $60,000 annually, said Thomas McKeon of the Roanoke Higher Education Center, who has been named Downtown Roanoke's volunteer chairman, effective in July. He added that Diaz left with an annual salary of $72,000.
McKeon said the organization is looking for a director who is enthusiastic about promoting downtown living and filling empty storefronts with retailers and who will bring bold ideas to the table. The director should have a minimum of three to five years of management experience, he said.
"We think Roanoke is poised at a very important point in its development, so we wanted to look for candidates in our national pool," McKeon said.
Downtown Roanoke Inc. is also looking toward the search firm to help finesse some of the job parameters to fit the current job market, which at the moment is pretty tight, Smith said.
In seeking the right candidate, Smith said his firm plans to mine various economic development groups, consulting firms, foundations and nonprofits for either someone with a similar director position in a smaller market or a number two in command in a larger city who'd like to move up the executive ladder.
The search will also target local prospects. "There may be some real hidden diamonds right there in the Roanoke area," Smith said.
The search comes amid a swell of controversy concerning potential changes to the city's Market Square that could displace at least half the market vendors. Roanoke officials are hiring a mediator to bring about a consensus on the issue.
The search also comes at a time when downtown is striving to raise its profile in the region and build its hospitality resources in anticipation of the opening of a new building for the Art Museum of Western Virginia in 2008.
DHR International is the fifth-largest executive search firm in the country, said Smith, who plans to travel to Roanoke this month to meet with Downtown Roanoke Inc.'s search committee, headed by McKeon.
Two of the organization's previous directors, Matt Kennell and Franklin "Kim" Kimbrough, were also hired with assistance from a search firm, McKeon said.
