The search committee to seek the successor to Dr. Dennis DePerro, the 21^st president of St. Bonaventure University, has been finalized.

Deb Henretta, ’83, partner at Council Advisors and senior advisor to World 50, and Michael Hill, ’96, president of Chautauqua Institution, are co-chairing the search committee. Henretta is the vice chair and Hill is secretary of SBU’s Board of Trustees.

WittKieffer, the executive search firm that supported the search for SBU’s president in 2015, will also manage this search.

“I’m confident we’ve assembled a group of people totally committed to the process,” said John Sheehan, ’82, chair of the Board of Trustees. “We all recognize that the person to follow in Dr. DePerro’s footsteps will have big shoes to fill, but I’m convinced this group will turn over every stone to find our next great leader.”

SBU’s president since June 2017, Dr. DePerro passed away March 1 as a result of complications from COVID-19.

The campus community, as well as alumni and regional leaders, will have the opportunity over the next several weeks to offer input on the key attributes they believe are important for the next president to possess. The schedule for those Zoom listening sessions will be announced in May.

The application process for prospective candidates will begin early this summer, with the objective of narrowing the pool to three or four finalists by early October. Trustees and key university stakeholders will then interview the finalists before the announcement of a new president is made by the end of 2021.

“Our goal is to have the new president in place no later than July 2022,” Sheehan said. Dr. Joseph Zimmer, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, will continue in his role as acting president until then.

Selected to the search committee were:

• Trustees: Luke Brown, ’89 associate director for Supervisory Policy at Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC); Pikai Chiang, ’84, partner and chief information officer at Convexity Capital Management LP; Mark Gianniny, president of Linden Oaks Management Company; Fr. Dan Horan, O.F.M., ’05, Duns Scotus Chair of Spirituality at Catholic Theological Union; Laurie Krupa, ’82, retired managing director – regional executive of Mid Atlantic Business Banking at Bank of America; Kristan McMahon, ’97, president of the Robert H. Jackson Center
• Holy Name Province Representative: Fr. Xavier Seubert, O.F.M., guardian of St. Bonaventure Friary and professor emeritus of art history
• Trustee Chair Emeritus: Bob Daugherty, ’77, retired partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
• SBU Faculty Representatives: Dr. Mary Rose Kubal, associate professor of political science; Dr. James Pientka, associate professor of physics; Dr. Megan Walsh, professor of English
• SBU Administration Representative: Dan Hungerford, vice president for Finance and Administration
• SBU Staff Representative: Beth Eberth, director of university communications
• SBU Alumni Representative: Kayte Malik, ’03, director of portfolio management, Sportsbook Retail at FanDuel
• SBU Student Representative: Meghan Hall, ’22, majoring in journalism and marketing.
• Community Representative: Dr. Kevin Watkins, public health director, Cattaraugus County
• SBU Administrative Support: Jennifer Skroback, office manager of the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts

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About the University: The nation’s first Franciscan university, St. Bonaventure University is a community committed to transforming the lives of our students inside and outside the classroom, inspiring in them a lifelong commitment to service and citizenship. In 2020, St. Bonaventure was named the #2 regional university value in New York and #3 in the North by U.S. News and World Report.