The soft resignation of Robert Robbins in April has cleared the way for the state Board of Regents to start looking for the University of Arizona’s next president.
The regents have since contracted with the same firm that helped find the current president of Northern Arizona University. The price the regents paid in 2020 was $100,000.
Now, the same firm is charging $275,000 to help pick the next UA president.
“This is what the going rate is now. Searches across the country have significantly increased in price over the past few years,” said Megan Gilbertson, associate vice president for public affairs who spoke on behalf of the regents.
The standard charge by the executive-search industry now is roughly one-third of the salary paid to the incoming hire, Gilbertson said.
UA’s president is set to earn about $816,000 in yearly base pay while NAU’s will reportedly make roughly $594,000.
Gilbertson said the regents really got a discount for help to find Robbins’ successor.
Alberto Pimentel, managing partner of SP&A Executive Search, called the deal significant.
“The University of Arizona has a full medical school and a health science complex. That in and of itself puts it in a different stratosphere," Pimentel said.
Pimentel cites UA’s elite and exclusive ranking for research as another contrast with NAU that factored into the price.
Independent expert Judith Wilde confirms this and the 33% standard charge. But Wilde is unsure if the regents are paying a premium for help with the UA-president search.
“I don't know that I call it a discount. It may be when you compare it to some others that we've seen. Neither — even the one at University of Arizona is not way out of line," Wilde said.
Wilde is a research professor at George Mason University. She has collected roughly 150 contracts between entities such as the regents and search-firms like SP&A.
Wilde reviewed the deals for NAU’s last presidential search, and UA’s current one at the request of KJZZ News. She was struck by something other than the different price tags.
“If you look at the specificity in these contracts, there's very little,” said Wilde.
Especially on how much Pimentel’s firm is required to vet backgrounds and query references of prospects to be UA’s next president.
“That’s a major area,” said Wilde.
Gilbertson said the regents adopt separate guidelines to govern the process of every search. The contract with SP&A is one piece of the larger effort, which also involves a search committee.
“We are deeply committed to a search process that reinvigorates the university and brings people together with the goal of finding the best possible leader for the University of Arizona,” said Gilbertson.
The regents did assign some vetting jobs to its advisory committee but not in a way that meets expectations of the independent expert.
Wilde has used her cache of contracts to analyze presidencies that ended about midway through a first contract.
“And when you look at why they left, it almost always comes down to something coming out from their background that was not identified during the search,” said Wilde.
This was not the case for Robbins, who has held office for nearly seven years.
Last year, Robbins revealed a nearly quarter billion dollar financial crisis caused by a miscalculation in UA’s cash on hand.
The regents’ contract with Pimentel’s firm sets a $2,000 limit for background investigations.
Pimentel said to expect his industry’s standard of repeated checks that broaden in scope and deepen with intensity as people rise through the process.
“We do it that frequently. Because things change that rapidly at universities,” he said.
Pimentel recently helped the regents find UA’s new provost. And his firm recruited José Luis Cruz Rivera to NAU.
Cruz Rivera replaced Rita Cheng in Flagstaff almost three years ago.
Like Robbins, Cheng chose to not seek another contract in a presidency marked with controversy.
Pimentel said the pool of executives has shrunk significantly in recent years.
“It makes recruiting individuals to these type of institutions incredibly difficult. There's also a price war taking place,” he said.
UA projects that its budget deficit will be at $52 million in July.
Pimentel said the problem is a type of challenge that’s always part of a complex search. He also noted that many other public universities with a new president, or on the cusp of having to search for one, face crises too.
