For college and university clients that need their search consultant to be more than a process facilitator and screener of advertising responses, C. V. O’Boyle, LLC offers a professional alternative to the business practices and fee structures of corporate executive-search firms and academic search boutiques.
We conduct comprehensive, national searches for colleges and universities as they seek new senior leadership. We have a particular expertise in specialized academic searches that demand original research and direct, targeted, recruiting. All of our searches benefit from the active involvement of the senior consultant in every stage of the process.
In recent years, we have helped recruit presidents; provosts and other academic-affairs officers; deans of business, career services, education, law, nursing and research; library directors; and chief advancement, financial and student-affairs officers. Clients have consistently praised our ability to deliver diverse short lists and candidates who are not actively seeking new employment. We’ve been notably successful in recruiting from peer and aspirant institutions.
We are a professional practice and not a commodity business. Most of our engagements are unsolicited, with a high percentage of our work consisting of new assignments from past clients, including some of the leading research universities and national liberal arts colleges. But our record of ambitious recruiting for institutions that are less well known is unsurpassed.
I have been working in retained executive search since 2000 and have specialized in senior recruiting for colleges, universities and other educational institutions since 2002. But our firm’s standards of professional service derive from my earlier career as a securities lawyer. We endeavor to deliver to each of our search clients the same attention to detail, rigorous analysis, personal discretion and confidentiality that are the hallmarks of a premier law practice.
My past association with both Spencer Stuart and Jon McRae & Associates means that we’re well versed in the practices of the established search firms, without being constrained by their business models. Most onerously, the major firms require the lead consultant to delegate critical portions of the search process (including initial contacts with referral sources and prospects and sometimes even reference checking) to a junior consultant, research staff and/or independent subcontractors who have not been in direct, ongoing consultation with the client.
In contrast, at C. V. O’Boyle, the consultant who leads the search personally makes all substantive calls and drafts all substantive correspondence. This single-minded approach ensures that the client’s recruiting message is communicated consistently, with all of its nuances, and that the search committee receives fully-informed counsel throughout the process.
A word about the credentials of the firm’s Managing Director. In my previous career, I practiced securities law at Lord Day & Lord, Barrett Smith in New York and also worked in the legal operation of GE Capital in Stamford, Connecticut before moving to Atlanta in 1997. I earned a BA in history from Amherst College, cum laude, in 1986. After two years of service as Director of Operations for the Chi Psi Educational Trust, I enrolled at the University of Michigan Law School, earning my JD in 1991. I am admitted to the New York bar and have been associated with the American Council on Education’s Executive Search Roundtable since 2002.
To inquire about our services or our open searches, please contact Chuck O'Boyle directly at:
t: 404.897.1687
f: 404.892.6832
e: chuck@cvoboyle.com
a: 650 Yorkshire Road, N.E.
Atlanta, Georgia 30306-3251