Search Process for New Senior VP of Communications and Marketing Underway, Opus Partners to Assist with Search

The search process for Syracuse University’s new senior vice president of communications and marketing is officially underway. The new position will report to the Chancellor, serve as the University’s chief communications and marketing officer, lead the new integrated Division of Communications and Marketing, and be responsible for aligning all its functions, including branding, web and social media, and internal and external communications.

Opus Partners, an executive search firm headquartered in Philadelphia, has been engaged to assist with the process. Members of the Opus Partners team are on campus this week meeting with University leaders, staff in the divisions of Public Affairs and Marketing Communications, and the search committee.

The search committee, which was announced in December 2016, is co-chaired by John Wildhack, director of Athletics, and Rochelle Ford, chair of the Department of Public Relations in the Newhouse School of Public Communications. Other members of the search committee are:

• Lindsey Callahan, graduate student representative
• Eric Evangelista, undergraduate student representative, Student Association President
• Dolan Evanovich, Senior Vice President for Enrollment and the Student Experience
• Deborah Henretta, alumni representative
• Lawrence Kramer, University Trustee
• S.P. Raj, Interim Dean, Whitman School of Management
• Michael Tirico, University Trustee
• Kathleen Walters, University Trustee

Once the new senior vice president of communications and marketing is on board, he or she will be responsible for assessing the new division’s operational structure. The Office of Marketing and Communications will move from the Division of Enrollment and the Student Experience into the integrated division, along with other public affairs and communications functions.