Search committee chooses consultant

The Chancellor Search Committee has selected the A.T. Kearney Inc. executive search firm from Alexandria, Va., to assist with its work of identifying candidates to be the next leader of East Carolina University.

Shelly Storbeck, managing director of Kearney’s education practice, made a presentation to the committee Wednesday (Oct. 29). She will be the principal consultant working with the panel.

The Kearney firm also worked for the university two years ago in the last search for an ECU chancellor. Dr. William V. Muse resigned in September after serving two years as chancellor. Storbeck, who is not the same consultant who previously worked with ECU, told the committee that she would promote the university’s momentum and its strategic plan in recruiting candidates. She also said the university’s upcoming centennial in 2007 and its location are attractive.

Jim Talton, chair of the committee and of the ECU Board of Trustees, noted that Storbeck had assisted the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in the recruitment of its new chancellor, Rosemary DePaolo. Talton quoted the head of the UNCW search committee as saying that Storbeck “did an excellent job and he would hire her again.”

Talton also said that Buster Humphreys, chairman of the Board of Directors of University Health Systems and chairman of the Board of Trustees of Pitt County Memorial Hospital, had been named to the search committee, bringing its total membership to 13.

The committee, which is completing a series of forums to receive advice and suggestions from the public, plans to meet again in about two weeks.