Michael Koch and Andrew Cadle

Knight Errant: How are your first few months going and what kind of progress have you been making?

Shay Wyley: So the first months have been fantastic, it’s been a great experience. Of course, I’ve been a parent here for a long time, so it’s really nice to be here in this capacity.

KE: How is the search process for a President going?

SW: So, the search process is off to a great start.  We have a search committee formed, which comprises of a wide range of people with different backgrounds and different experiences, which is really going to be great. We’ve got a lot of different perspectives: some people who helped with the search last time around and some new people. That search committee is meeting regularly. They have already appointed a search firm who is looking for good candidates for us. We’ve got the position profile. It’s on our website. People can go and see it there. They can also see who’s on our search committee on our website. We’re off to a great start. Everybody’s working hard to get a new President in here as soon as we can.

KE: Regarding the partnership with Cohen-Taylor, the organization that’s helping to recruit new leadership, what are the responsibilities that BSM is sharing with them? What part of the process do they take control over?

SW: So, Cohen-Taylor are the search firm, they will find candidates and evaluate candidates and then bring them to the search committee for evaluation. But Cohen-Taylor play a very important part in this and they do a lot of the work for us.

KE: So the vetting is done in part by them and in part by our search committee?

SW: It’s done initially by Cohen-Taylor and they narrow it down to a couple of candidates that we’re really very interested in. Then the search committee will take over at that point and work with Cohen-Taylor to evaluate more and ultimately at the end of the day we’ll get a really good President.

KE: Do you know where in this process we are?

SW: I’m not on the search committee, which I think is entirely appropriate as I’m President. The process has just started, but it’s off to a very good start. So, we’re not at the point yet where we have a candidate, we’re still talking to a lot of people.

KE: Regarding your position here, what is the technical term to refer to you as rather than interim-president which was not quite appropriate?

SW: So the position title is President, so I’m President, but not a long-term President. A big huge part of my role is to help us transition to the long-term President.

KE: I understand your role in that is not too integral in the process, but what’s your capacity?

SW: So like I said, I’m not on the search committee. I’m there to help and to advise and to help coordinate things as necessary, but the search committee are the ones who are doing all of the work. My role is really much more focused on the school itself.

KE: Is there any way for students to let you know what we look for in a President?

SW: Yeah sure, my door is always open. I’m always very interested to hear from people. One of the search committee members is Mr. Backen, so he’s also here representing the faculty and staff so he’s also a very good conduit. Through the position profile I think it’s very clear to see as well a lot of thought has gone into that. I like to think that captures a lot of people’s thoughts and inputs and what we wanted for a president of Benilde-St. Margaret’s.

KE: So now, with your position, what’s your favorite part about it?