Executive Vice President
Research!America in Alexandria, Virginia, has retained Slesinger Management Services to recruit a seasoned leader to serve as executive vice president. Reporting to the organization's president and CEO, the executive vice president's primary responsibility will be to work in partnership with the president to enable Research!America to continue to grow and flourish.
The EVP will serve as the organization's number two person and will oversee many of the key functions of the organization, including fundraising, membership development, financial management, and administration, enabling the CEO to focus on strategic leadership and program development, speaking to media and participating at key conferences and meetings, developing relationships with organizations that can be active partners with Research!America, and, in concert with the EVP, fundraising, communications, and strategic planning.
Applications will be accepted until this search is completed.
The Organization
Research!America (the exclamation point is part of its official name) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to make research that improves health a higher national priority. Founded in 1989, Research!America is supported by more than 500 universities, hospitals, research institutes, professional and scientific societies, health and patient advocacy organizations, corporations, and foundations that together represent more than 125 million Americans. Through public opinion polls, advocacy programs, and publications, Research!America reaches high-level decision makers as well as the broader public to help advance medical, health, and scientific research.
Recent programs include advocacy campaigns to increase the budgets of the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; websites that educate the public on the members of Congress's and the 2008 presidential candidates' views on health care and research; and a periodic analysis of U.S. investment in research to improve health.
Research!America currently has a staff of 23 and an annual budget of $5 million. It is funded primarily by membership dues, grants from foundations and corporations, and program-specific support. Recent donors include the Rockefeller Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, and Pfizer.
Research!America's president and CEO is Mary Woolley, who has been the organization's CEO since 1990. Its board chairman is former U.S. Congressman John Edward Porter.
To learn more about Research!America, please see www.ResearchAmerica.org.
The Position and its Principal Responsibilities
The executive vice president is an existing position. For the past eight years, it has been held by Bill Leinweber, who is leaving to become CEO of the American Academy of Physician Assistants.
Working in close partnership with the CEO, the new executive vice president will be responsible for overseeing several departments of the organization, including fundraising, membership, finance, and administration, with the CEO overseeing the departments that focus on programs and communications.
If, however, the new EVP has significant relevant program or communications expertise, the grouping of which departments report to the EVP and which ones report to the CEO might change. In either case, the EVP will have significant responsibility for ensuring the successful day-to-day operation of the organization, especially since the CEO has significant external relations responsibilities that take her away from the office as much as 50 percent of the time.
Desired Skills and Characteristics
As the person overseeing the day-to-day operations of Research!America, and especially the non-program departments, the ideal executive vice president should possess the following skills and characteristics:
- Demonstrated experience in two or more of the following areas: fundraising, membership development, financial management, and administration.
- An understanding of national advocacy organizations whose mission involves health or another relevant field.
- Capable of leading, motivating, and supervising senior staff who have highly specialized knowledge of their areas of responsibility.
- Experienced in managing growth, including having an understanding of the organizational development issues that emerge when organizations grow rapidly.
- Supportive of team-based, collaborative management that is based on open and free-flowing communication, extensive sharing of information, and inclusive decision-making.
- An excellent communicator, in writing and orally.
- Professionalism, maturity, confidence and presence to work effectively with a dynamic and active board of directors.
- A trusted, complementary partner of the president, who will continue to spend much of her time on externally-focused activities.
- Committed to the mission of Research!America, with a clear understanding of the value of medical, health, and scientific research.
Experience
The ideal executive vice president will have at least 10 years of broad-based senior management experience, ideally at organizations that work in advocacy or health at the national level and have budgets greater than $8 million.
Compensation
Salary will be commensurate with experience and qualifications. Research!America offers a generous benefits package.
To Apply
Please e-mail:
- cover letter that explains why you're interested and qualified,
- resume, and
- three-year salary history (which will be held in strict confidence)
to search consultant Larry Slesinger, Founder and CEO of Slesinger Management Services, at Larry@SlesingerManagement.com. Please include "Research!America" in subject line; attached files in Microsoft Word or PDF only.
All applications will be acknowledged promptly.
(This job announcement can also be found at www.SlesingerManagement.com.)
Research!America is an Equal Opportunity Employer.