University also announces appointees to its Presidential Search Committee

The Cleveland State University Board of Trustees has selected the national consulting and search firm Wheless Partners to manage its search for the next president of Cleveland State. The firm has coordinated multiple successful executive searches in the state of Ohio and has specific expertise leading presidential and chancellor searches for numerous public and private universities nationally. The firm was selected by the Board after a public RFP process.

The search will be managed by Mike JR Wheless, managing partner and division president of Wheless Partners and Lisa Marks, the firm’s managing director and divisional chief operations officer.

“Wheless Partners is one of the nation’s leading executive search firms and has broad expertise in the private and public sectors as well as specific experience with the unique requirements of a university presidential search process,” says Bernie Moreno, chair of the CSU Board of Trustees and chair of the CSU Presidential Search Committee. “We are excited to partner with Wheless to select a leader who can continue the tremendous growth CSU has experienced over the last decade.”

CSU also announced the appointment of members to the Presidential Search Committee. The group, consisting of board members, students, faculty, staff and community members, will lead the presidential search process and will work with Wheless Partners to review potential candidates and make a recommendation on selection to the CSU Board of Trustees. The members of the committee are:

• Bernie Moreno, chair, Cleveland State University Board of Trustees & chair search committee
• Thomas Adler, member, Cleveland State University Board of Trustees
• Dan T. Moore III, member, Cleveland State University Board of Trustees
• Heather Lennox, community member, Cleveland State University Board of Trustees
• Timothy Cosgrove, chair, CSU Foundation Board of Directors
• Rick Chiricosta, chair, president and CEO, Medical Mutual of Ohio
• Margot Copeland, executive vice president and director of philanthropy, KeyBank
• Jenniffer Deckard, CEO, Fairmount Santrol
• Brian Donley, chief of staff and chief of clinical enterprise, the Cleveland Clinic
• Peter Raskind, former CEO, National City Corp.
• Stephen Rowan, chair, Board of Directors, the Cleveland Foundation
• Rachel Carnell, professor of English, Cleveland State University
• Ronnie Dunn, associate professor of urban studies, Cleveland State University
• Jerzy Sawicki, vice president for research, Cleveland State University
• Nigamanth Sridhar, dean of graduate studies, Cleveland State University
• Julian Earls, executive-in-residence, CSU’s Monte Ahuja College of Business
• Stephanie McHenry, CFO & senior VP for business affairs and finance, Cleveland State University
• William Napier, secretary to the Cleveland State University Board of Trustees
• Mike Thomas, director of athletics, Cleveland State University
• Sierra Davidson, student member, Cleveland State University Board of Trustees.
• Malek Khawam, first year law student, CSU’s Cleveland Marshall College of Law
• Sonali Wilson, general counsel, Cleveland State University

To learn more about Wheless Partners and obtain full biographies of the search committee, visit CSU’s presidential transition website.

CSU President Ronald M. Berkman announced June 20 that he would retire at the end of the 2017-18 academic year. The next president of CSU is scheduled to take office July 1, 2018.

###