Message from Chairman McMahon on the
Search Process

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May 15, 2012

Dear Fellow Members of the CMC Community,

This will provide an update on the process that we as a community will take in our search for the next President of Claremont McKenna College, and to seek your active engagement in this process.

Thanks to President Gann's outstanding efforts over the past 13 years, CMC is in an excellent position to effect a leadership transition. As I have communicated, the Board intends to complete a thorough search and transition process, and we are in the process of assembling a Presidential Search Committee that will advise the Board of Trustees in this search.

The committee will include up to eight trustees, five faculty members, one alumni representative, and one student representative. The trustee, alumni, and student representatives will be appointed based on consultation with the members of the Board's Executive Committee. The faculty representatives will be appointed after consultation with the faculty through a process that we will activate this week. Matthew Bibbens '92, General Counsel and Secretary of the College, and Jerome Garris, Vice President and Dean Emeritus, will serve as staff to the committee. Ultimately, the final decision on a new President rests with the Board of Trustees.

The Board of Trustees has engaged the services of John Isaacson of Isaacson, Miller to assist the Presidential Search Committee and the Board in this search. Isaacson, Miller is a nationally recognized firm with a principal focus on higher education, and Mr. Isaacson has worked on presidential searches for institutions such as Amherst, Dartmouth, Williams, and Tufts.

The Presidential Search Committee will focus on three core functions during the search process:

  • Definition: Defining collectively the institution, laying out the goals for the next President, and creating a succinct document intended to inform, inspire, and draw the best candidates.
  • Discovery: Mobilizing the CMC community to identify compelling candidates while at the same time using the search firm's network of relationships to identify additional strong candidates and make appropriate points of contact.
  • Selection: Learning more and more about fewer and fewer people as the process evolves in order to match a uniquely qualified leader to an institution that holds a distinctive position within higher education.
To help inform the work of the committee and the executive search firm, we welcome your comments, ideas, and observations on the blend of characteristics and values that would best define CMC's next president. Please write to us at pressearch@cmc.edu. In addition, once the community returns at the end of the summer, we plan to organize multiple in-person and online venues where you can convey your thoughts. We will also be establishing a link, within the cmc.edu website, where you can access information on the search process and confidentially share your perspectives and, eventually, provide nominations for specific candidates.

Thank you in advance for your thoughts, your interest, and your support as we undertake this crucial effort.

Sincerely,

Harry McMahon Sign

Harry T. McMahon '75 P'08 P'09
Chairman of the Board of Trustees