ANN ARBOR—A 15-member University of Michigan advisory committee has been appointed to search for candidates to fill the position of executive vice president and chief financial officer that will be vacant the end of this month when Farris W. Womack returns to full-time teaching in the School of Education.

Thomas C. Kinnear, vice president for development, who will chair the advisory committee, says the committee was selected by Interim President Homer A. Neal and charged with conducting a broad national search that will deliver a list of three or four candidates by early June. It is probable that the committee will enlist the help of a consultant in order to recruit top candidates for the position, which Kinnear says is one of the most important in the University.

Although Womack announced in March that he would be stepping down, the search committee was not formed earlier because a president had not yet been selected.

” The president must work very closely with this person,” Kinnear says. ” It is imperative to have a president in place before you can recruit the kind of person the University needs to fill this position.” He also says he expects that candidates to fill the vacancy of executive vice president and chief financial officer may already hold similar positions and confidentiality will be an important consideration for the committee in contacting them.

” We are fortunate to have Chandler Matthews to act as our chief financial officer in the interim,” Kinnear notes. ” He knows the business very well.”

Kinnear says that he is confident the committee will be able to present the president with a list of qualified candidates by the June deadline.

” This is a very diverse, impressive and hard-working group that is tackling this task with great enthusiasm,” he says. ” The position of chief financial officer is an extremely important and complex job that requires both leadership and management skills. We are looking forward to finding someone who is as good as Farris has been.” The committee has representatives from both academic and business units on campus as well as from the Medical Center, research, athletics, undergraduate students, graduate students and alumni.

Committee members are: Kinnear (chair); Richard W. Bailey, professor of English, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA); Robert G. Behrens, vice chancellor of business affairs, U-M-Dearborn; Peggy Bradley-Doppes, senior associate director of athletics; E. LaBrent Chrite, director of administrative services and director of African Business Development Corps, Business School; Noreen M. Clark, dean of the School of Public Health and professor of public health;

Christian M. Eiler, undergraduate student, LSA; Terrence A. Elkes, managing director, Apollo Partners, LLC; Kellie McElhaney, graduate student instructor, Business School, and manager, Corporate Environmental Management Program, School of Natural Resources and Environment; Marvin G. Parnes, assistant vice president for research and director, Division of Research Development and Administration; Thomas G. Schlaff, director of construction management, Plant Extension Office;

Aline Soules, director and librarian, Kresge Business Administration Library, Business School; David N. Southwell, senior associate hospital director and hospital financial officer, University Hospitals; Lisa A. Tedesco, associate dean for academic affairs, School of Dentistry, and presidential associate for special programs; James J. White, the Robert A. Sullivan Professor of Law, Law School.

Staff support is provided by Ejner J. Jensen, professor of English and special counsel to the president, and Barbara Wagner, administrative assistant, Office of the President.

Kinnear says the committee welcomes suggestions from the University community. Comments should be sent to Barbara Wagner, 2074 Fleming Administration Building; [email protected].

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