At the June 14 meeting, the Board of Governors passed a motion to create a new office of vice president (international and enterprise). This is an important step toward strengthening our global academic and industry partnerships. I am pleased to announce that we are launching the search for the vice president.
The new office will bring together the Strategic Partnerships Office, currently part of the VP (external relations) portfolio, and the Global Engagement team, presently under UA International. Integrating these units will enhance our strategic capacity to support global academic partnerships and industry engagement.
This summer, I appointed Dr. David Bressler as a special advisor to me to help prepare for the creation of this new office. Over the past few months, Dr. Bressler has engaged with university community members and external stakeholders to explore potential models for the new unit. He will shortly release a “what we heard” document to share his findings and seek further input on the next steps.
The vice president (international and enterprise) will lead our efforts to expand international academic collaborations and enhance our engagement with industry. Strategic international research collaborations will deepen our impact and enhance our global ranking. International academic partnerships can drive international student enrolment through articulation agreements and joint academic programs. Likewise, expanded industry engagement can help fund research, support academic programs through work-integrated learning and deepen our external engagement.
This new role is modeled after similar offices at top universities. The office of the vice president (international and enterprise) will operate horizontally across the university, working in close collaboration with the provost, VP (research and innovation), and college and faculty deans to lead high-impact global partnerships that support our academic mission.
The Search Process
We are ready to launch the formal search for this position. We seek a dynamic, entrepreneurial academic leader with a proven track record in global engagement and building impactful international and industry partnerships.
As per UAPPOL policy, I will chair the search, and the search committee will include members identified in the policy. We have engaged DHR Global to assist with this national and international search.
We have established a survey for the university community to provide input on the role. Your feedback will help shape the search process and inform the selection of the best candidate for this position. The survey will remain open until the end of the day on Oct. 6. I encourage everyone to participate.
The search committee’s first meeting is planned for mid-October. We will provide updates as the process progresses.
Bill Flanagan,
President and Vice-Chancellor