WittKieffer Seeking President for Loyola Marymount
February 27, 2025 – A number of universities have recently turned to search firms to find new chief human resources officers. Oak Brook, IL-based WittKieffer is at the closing stages of its search for a new president for Loyola Marymount University (LMU). The current president, Timothy Law Snyder, plans to retire on May 31, 2025. Suzanne Teer, Philip Tang, and Alejandra Gillette-Teran are leading the assignment. The school seeks a transformative and visionary leader to serve as its next president to advance its Catholic, Jesuit, and Marymount mission.
The next president will honor LMU’s cherished traditions while forging a bold vision for the future. Key priorities include enhancing the university’s mission and values, expanding innovative academic offerings, enriching student life, pursuing fundraising opportunities, enhancing visibility and reputation, cultivating partnerships, and broadening LMU’s influence locally and globally. The president will oversee the culmination of a historic comprehensive capital campaign, lead a new strategic planning process, and further establish LMU’s role as an educational and cultural leader in Los Angeles and beyond.
The ideal candidate should demonstrate a proven record of scholarly innovation, a collaborative leadership style, exceptional interpersonal communications, and the ability to foster community to produce successful outcomes. Experience navigating a complex academic institution rooted in Catholic pedagogies is preferred with a passion for higher education and a commitment to shared governance.
The ideal candidate will also have a deep understanding of and alignment and values of a Catholic education in the Jesuit and Marymount traditions of Ignatian pedagogy, including a demonstrated commitment to justice in all its forms (social, racial, economic, and environmental), education of the whole person, and fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion. The president will embrace the Catholic intellectual, spiritual, and social traditions, and embraces Catholic liturgy, ritual, and other settings where they may be called upon to lead prayer and deliver personal reflections.
LMU educates more than 10,000 students from over 100 countries, offering 56 majors, 56 minors, 45 master’s programs, three doctoral degrees, a juris doctorate, and 12 credential programs across its seven colleges and schools. LMU is supported by an annual operating budget of $689 million and it generates nearly $1.4 billion in total economic output in the U.S.
Proven Search Firm
WittKieffer assists hospitals, health systems, academic medical centers, medical schools, and physician groups; biotech, pharmaceutical, diagnostics and medical device companies; colleges and universities, and not-for-profit community service and cultural organizations with senior administrative recruiting assignments. With more than 100 search professionals nationwide, its consultants recruit CEOs, CFOs, COOs, CNOs, physician executives, and other leaders.
Related: WittKieffer Leading CHRO Search for the University of Tampa
Based in New Mexico, Ms. Teer supports leadership searches for presidents, vice presidents, provosts, deans and other key roles across all academic areas, with particular expertise in science, research-oriented and engineering-related searches as well as advancement and philanthropy searches. Her clients include top-tier research universities, independent research institutes, public regional universities and leading private universities. Ms. Teer brings to her search work extensive experience in fundraising within the field of education spanning top-tier research universities, academic medical centers, liberal arts colleges and independent schools. Prior to joining WittKieffer in 2016, she spent 20 years with the University of California raising funds to support the physical and biomedical sciences.
Rutgers University Selects WittKieffer to Lead Search for 22nd President
WittKieffer has been retained by Rutgers University to lead in its search for its 22nd president. The university board of governors’ announcement officially initiates the process of selecting a successor to president Jonathan Holloway, who announced last month he would step down on June 30, 2025. “This is an important time for Rutgers University and an opportunity for Rutgers to chart a bold path forward,” said Amy L. Towers, chair of the board of governors. “Rutgers is in a terrific position to attract the best of the best in its next president. The university deserves a dynamic leader and communicator who shares Rutgers’ values, appreciates our multicampus identity, and brings with them experience running large, complex organizations with institutional effectiveness, accountability and a commitment to excellence.
Mr. Tang works on behalf of the nation’s leading universities and health sciences institutions to recruit senior executives and academic leaders. An interdisciplinary specialist, he conducts searches for presidents, provosts, academic deans and cabinet-level roles. Mr. Tang manages WittKieffer’s leading public health portfolio, routinely placing deans, directors and chairs who strengthen not only their institutions but also their communities, advancing health equity, and improving population health. As leader of the firm’s online and digital education practice, Mr. Tang helps universities across the nation recruit chief online officers to steward their distance education strategies and catalyze academic and pedagogical innovation using digital technology. Previously, he was a vice provost at Johns Hopkins University.
Ms. Gillette-Teran is based in Los Angeles. Before joining WittKieffer, she was a senior associate with a boutique executive search firm specializing in the not-for-profit sector. In this position, she orchestrated executive-level searches in the fields of higher education, health and human services, and arts and culture. She excelled at developing targeted recruitment strategies that resulted in robust and diverse candidate pools. Prior to this, she served as assistant director of undergraduate admission at the University of Southern California.
Related: WittKieffer Seeking Chief Diversity Officer for Brandeis University
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
