The Board and the President

• Author: Cheryl Foy
• Pages: 169-178

169

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The Board and the President

e importance of the relationship between the board and the president

cannot be understated. One of the board’s main tasks involves the hiring,

management, support, and, if necessary, termination of the president. e

presidential hiring process is long and very public, with the consequence

that a poor decision is nancially costly. More importantly, a failed presi-

dency represents a huge opportunity cost and a major community relations

issue for the board. And, university presidencies in Canada really do fail at

a rate of about  percent. What, then, can the board do to ensure that it

hires the right president and helps that person to succeed?

1 Anna Stuart, Ross Paul & Peter George, “Leadership in Academia: Onboarding,”

Knights bridge Robertson Surrette (2012), online: KBRS www.kbrs.ca/insights/leadership-

academia-onboarding. The authors state that “[a]n estimated 20% of recent presidential

appointments among Canadian universities were unsuccessful, resulting in the president

either leaving before the end of the f‌irst term or failing to meet the expectations and

objectives set out for them.”

2 For specif‌ic “Smart Practice” tips, see Karen E Hakkarainen, “A Smart Practice Guide

to Presidential Transition: A Resource for Governing Boards and New Presidents of

Canadian Public Universities” (June 2018), online: https://dspace.library.uvic.ca:8443/

handle/1828/10561.