Panel appointed to find new Virginia Tech president to hold public meeting

The committee was appointed to find a successor for outgoing President Charles Steger.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

The Virginia Tech committee in charge of finding a pool of applicants for outgoing university President Charles Steger’s job has announced it will hold a public meeting Thursday.

The meeting is set for 8:30 a.m. in the Cascades Room at the Inn at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. No agenda for the meeting has been published. Minnis Ridenour, administrative liaison to the committee, could not immediately be reached to answer questions Monday.

The committee is also holding meetings with faculty this week, according to the presidential search Web page. Meetings with graduate and undergraduate students are scheduled for September.

Input from outside groups has been solicited, too, according to a prepared statement from search committee Chairman George Nolen. Nolen is a former rector of the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors and retired CEO of Siemens Corp.

Nolen will host a public webcast at 3:30 p.m. Sept. 6 to provide information about the search, and to garner input, according to the statement.

Steger, who has served as president for about 14 years, announced in May that he would step down as soon as a replacement could be found. Presidential searches for similarly sized and positioned universities can take a year or more, current board of visitors Rector Mike Quillen has said.

The final hiring decision will be made by a vote of the board of visitors.

In June, the Virginia Tech Foundation hired executive search firm Russell Reynolds Associates to assist the university search committee in assembling a pool of candidates. Virginia Tech Foundation Director John Dooley declined to release the search firm’s contract Monday, citing foundation policy. The foundation, although affiliated with the university, is a private nonprofit organization.

For more information, visit www.presidentialsearch.vt.edu.

Saturday, September 14, 2013