Candidates for the LSU athletic director position will be identified Feb. 22 at the search committee’s second meeting. The 14-member committee is scheduled to discuss “an initial pool of candidates,” according to Jack Weiss, LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center chancellor and committee chairman. The committee will also approve the ideal candidate profile, which subcommittee members approved Feb. 1 as a job description. Weiss said he could not estimate how many candidates would be discussed at the next meeting. “There are no rigid rules about how particular applicants are going to be processed,” he said. “The search process as I envision it will be a rolling process. It is not a static pool.” The University paid Parker Executive Search firm of Atlanta $75,000 to facilitate the search to replace LSU Athletic Director Skip Bertman. Bertman retires June 30 and begins a two-year fundraising stint as athletic director emeritus. “After next week, [the firm] will continue to try to develop additional applicants that may be considered at a later date,” Weiss said. Weiss said not all candidates introduced at the meeting will be interviewed. “The committee will decide if it wishes to pursue interviewing these applicants or not,” he said. The firm has a “proprietary database” that includes “leaders in intercollegiate athletics that the firm has identified, followed, and worked with through the years” according to Parker Executive Search’s Web site. The firm also conducts background and reference checks for all candidates while maintaining confidentiality through the search process, according to its Web site. During the committee’s Jan. 19 meeting, Parker Executive representative Dan Parker said the firm has conducted 20 athletic director searches and never hired a former coach. Weiss said the anticipated Feb. 22 meeting will be public, although members might close parts of the meeting for executive session. In accordance with the Louisiana Open Meetings Law, executive sessions can be used to discuss character and “professional competence” of a candidate. The committee aims to have a selection by the end of March. The choice will be presented to interim Chancellor William Jenkins and LSU System President John Lombardi. If approved, the selection then goes before the Board of Supervisors for final approval.
—-Contact Amy Brittain at [email protected]