RISD board enlists international firm for president search

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island School of Design has retained the executive search firm Spencer Stuart to assist in the search for a successor to President Roger Mandle, who announced Feb. 2 that he wouldn’t seek to renew his contract when it expires in July 2008.
In a notice to the RISD community, Merrill W. Sherman, vice-chair of the RISD board – and president and CEO of Bank Rhode Island – said Spencer Stuart “has one of the largest and most diverse nonprofit practices in the executive search field, and has direct experience serving schools of art and design as well as a wide range of clients.”
Mandle, who has led RISD since 1993, is the school’s longest-serving president. Under his leadership, RISD has grown its endowment from $67 million to $340 million, grown its faculty by more than 50 percent, expanded its facilities and run its first comprehensive capital campaign, which raised $105 million. He has said he is leaving to explore “other avenues of professional opportunity.”