Ronald Stead is now in his 31st year of service to college and university search committees and has been the lead consultant in more than 170 searches, primarily for presidents or chancellors. He has served a broad range of public and independent colleges and universities throughout the nation. In American higher education, Stead is the doyen of search. His patience, tenacity, breadth of experience, phenomenal memory, and regard for committee and candidate alike have brought him recognition as a preferred consultant, the more difficult the assignment the better.
At Academic Search, Stead served as the firm’s executive director from 1979 through 1991. Then as now, colleagues turn to Stead for advice on political and ethical issues in search and for leads to appropriate candidates. In a firm where successful, long-term presidencies are the aim, colleagues note that the first university president chosen in a search Stead assisted—in 1979—is yet in office.
Stead came to the Presidential Search Consultation Service (as we were then called) from Franklin and Marshall College, where he served as associate dean of the college and dean of students. While at F&M, he was elected president of the Pennsylvania Association of Student Personnel Administrators. Stead held earlier administrative posts at Ohio Wesleyan University and Michigan State University. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees at Widener University.
During his long tenure as a search consultant Stead has made numerous presentations on executive search in colleges and universities and has authored several articles on the topic. He holds three degrees from Michigan State and attended the Harvard Institute for Educational Management.
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