Presidential Search

The search is underway to find the next president of Ohio Wesleyan University, succeeding President Rock Jones, who is retiring at the end of the 2022-23 academic year.

Selecting a president is one of the most important responsibilities of the Board of Trustees, and to facilitate this process, the Board of Trustees has appointed a search committee to conduct the search and has engaged executive search firm Academic Search to serve as a strategic partner in the process. 

A Message from Search Committee Chair Kara Trott

November 10, 2022

On behalf of the presidential search committee, I am writing to provide you with an update on our search for the next president of Ohio Wesleyan University. We are pleased to inform you that we have had a strong recruitment period over the past few weeks.

Our national search yielded over 100 applicants with an outstanding mix of skills, experiences, and qualifications. The presidential search committee and our search consultants met last week to narrow our pool for initial Zoom interviews. We will continue our work over the next several weeks, conducting several rounds of interviews and performing due diligence.

While the search committee continues to observe strict confidentiality to protect those who are engaged in the search, be assured that we are dedicated to the important task and common goal of identifying an outstanding leader for OWU. If you have any questions, please direct those to us at OWUPresident@academicsearch.org, and we would be happy to respond. We will treat any information you provide as confidential.  

Thank you for your interest and support. We will share additional news about the search as the process continues to unfold this fall.

Kara Trott ’83
Chair, Presidential Search Committee

Search Timeline

Following input from the campus community, the search officially launched in September 2022. Confidential interviews will be conducted in November and December, and a recommendation will be made to the OWU Board of Trustees in December. Plans call for a new president to be announced in January and to take office July 1, 2023. See the full timeline.