Inaugural President

For a full description, click here.

The Board of Trustees of a new and innovative experiential college in Abu Dhabi (“the College”) seeks a leader of vision, accomplishment, intellectual breadth, and entrepreneurial capacity to serve as the College’s inaugural President. Reporting to the Board, the President will play a key role in developing, opening, and establishing a transformative new institution designed to guide and educate ambitious and thoughtful leaders through an education grounded in the cultural practices of the region and informed by state-of-the-art practices in the experiential liberal arts. The College will expand the post-secondary educational modalities of Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates more broadly and teach students how to think in innovative and creative ways. Once established, the College will make a distinctive and measurable contribution to the expansion of Emirati culture, society, and economy within a multi-pronged approach to creating a knowledge economy in this young country.

The guiding vision for the College, the result of ambitious, multi-year planning work undertaken in the UAE education ecosystem, is to cultivate future generations of community-oriented leaders with humility and grit through post-secondary education guided by ambitious, student-led academics, community-building cultural practices, and service-oriented labor.

The President will join the College as the Board begins to move from conceptual to actual design of curriculum and facilities and into the start of the accreditation process and will therefore have a tremendous opportunity to shape the College from its very earliest moments. At this still-early point of development, it is anticipated that the College’s curriculum will traverse the liberal arts and sciences with strategic attention to disciplines foundational to math and sciences while also sustaining a core engagement with the arts, humanities, and social sciences that will enable students to engage and advance national and regional heritage in a global context.

The President will possess unquestioned integrity and exemplary interpersonal and communication skills needed to inspire and align constituents and remain focused on mission and values. A committed educator who values and supports faculty development and appreciates the full range of methods of inquiry, forms of research, and approaches to pedagogy represented in the College, the President will be a tireless and resourceful champion for the College and for the role experiential learning can play in the ongoing transformation of Abu Dhabi, the UAE, and the region more broadly.

Qualified candidates will have significant experience working with a governing board, hiring/appointing faculty, supervising administrative personnel, accreditation processes, and designing, developing, and/or enhancing degree and/or non-degree programs. Candidates will demonstrate strong evidence of visionary leadership, innovative and entrepreneurial action, administrative acumen, and the ability to foster an environment of growth, intellectual development for students, faculty, and staff, collegiality, and respect. Understanding of transfer credits, matriculation/transfer pathways to four-year institutions, and other forms of affiliation and partnership

While the Board will consider many possible pathways to the presidency of the College, candidates possessing an advanced degree will be preferred.

The Board has engaged Opus Partners to assist this search. Craig Smith, Partner, Kenna Boyd, Associate Partner, and Marisea Rivera, Senior Associate, are leading the search. To seek additional information, to nominate qualified candidates, or to apply, please contact marisea.rivera@opuspartners.net. An application should include a CV and cover letter. Letters should highlight relevant experience, explain interest and motivation, and describe an initial vision for leading the College. The search process is confidential until final-round interviews, at which point candidates will provide a comprehensive list of references.

Please consult Opus Partners for more information about the application process.

Recruitment is ongoing and the vacancy will be closed when the position has been filled.