Academic Search

• View Current Searches > Hide Current Searches >
• View Recently
  Completed Searches > Hide Recently
  Completed Searches >

A veteran university administrator with a long record of guiding highly successful searches for public and private institutions nationwide, John B. Hicks is a Senior Consultant with Academic Search, Inc.

Secretary Emeritus to the Board of Trustees of The University of Alabama System, Mr. Hicks also served as Executive Assistant to the Chancellor of Alabama’s largest higher education enterprise. During his tenure, he coordinated searches for fourteen Presidents and Chancellors as well as innumerable senior administrators – from Vice Chancellor and Vice President to General Counsel, Chief Information Officer, and General Auditor.

Mr. Hicks has been affiliated with the Association of Governing Boards (AGB), American Compensation Association (ACA), American Council on Education (ACE), College and University Personnel Association (CUPA), Japan-American Society of Alabama, and National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC). He has extensive experience in crisis management, leadership development, administrative transitions, and complex media relations matters.

Mr. Hicks consults nationally with governing boards and campus administrators on issues related to executive searches, compensation and benefits, and federal and state legislative issues and programs. He is an invited speaker to audiences of higher education professionals, where his counsel is sought on wide-ranging topics, and he has written for the AGB publication, Trusteeship.

He has been instrumental in helping the AGB develop programs for executive staff who report to public and private university boards of trustees across the nation. His service to that group was recognized in 2004 when he was one of two recipients of the prestigious certificate of distinction.

Mr. Hicks also was affiliated with The University of Michigan Personnel Department, managing executive searches as well as employment, affirmative action and equal opportunity, benefits, and compensation issues. Before assuming his responsibilities in Michigan, he worked in administrative recruitment and human resource management at Purdue University. He also established the first office for personnel, affirmative action/equal opportunity and fringe benefit administration for the thirteen-campus Indiana Vocational Technical College (now Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana).

Mr. Hicks earned a B.S. degree in Industrial Economics from the Krannert School of Industrial Management at Purdue University and an M.A. in Higher Education Administration from Eastern Michigan University. In 2004, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from The University of Alabama.

His record of state and community involvement includes extensive service on numerous boards devoted to the arts, academia, social outreach, and business.