Search for Fry successor continues

As students flock back to campus and settle in for another year, University administrators are set to begin the semester without one key figure -- an executive vice president.

The position has been vacant since July 1, when John Fry, who came to Penn in 1995, officially stepped down to become the president of Franklin and Marshall College, a liberal arts school in Lancaster, Pa. Since his departure, University President Judith Rodin has assumed his role and each of Penn's vice presidents have reported directly to her.

Rodin said that while she is "eagerly seeking a new EVP," having the ability to interact more directly with the vice presidents in recent months has been "a very, very good thing in the short term."

"It's been terrific," Rodin said. "I've made a lot of changes, reengineered some things in both process and expenditure that I might not have understood without having all the vice presidents reporting to me."

Fry, who became EVP in 1995, announced his plans to leave Penn in February. Since then, the University has been working with Spencer Stuart, an international consulting firm, in its search for a replacement. Candidates were identified and interviewed throughout the summer, but Rodin has not yet announced when she will make a final decision.

Regardless of when that time will be, Fry's successor will have a number of challenges to face. During his eight-year tenure at Penn, Fry oversaw the University's finances, community initiatives and retail and real estate projects in addition to supervising the Division of Public Safety.

Fry helped establish the Penn-Assisted School in West Philadelphia and the University City District. He was also instrumental in bringing the Freshgrocer and the shops at Sansom Common to campus and negotiating the construction of a new movie theater.

The new EVP will have to maintain all of these projects, as well as help implement the University's new strategic plan, which was released last semester as a follow-up to the 1995 Agenda for Excellence.

Searches for university executives can be lengthy, partially due to the politics involved in higher education, said Kerry Moynihan, managing director of executive search firm Christian and Timbers.

According to Moynihan, a Wharton graduate, until a new EVP is appointed, the University community needs to ask, "Who's covering? Are we reorganizing and divvying up the responsibilities or are they just going unfilled without any leadership?"

But Penn administrators say Fry's departure has not left any such gaps in leadership.

Almost two months after his departure, all administrative projects are on schedule and little has changed in the way of individual duties, officials said.

"Nothing has been structurally broken up or patched together," said Vice President for Facilities and Real Estate Services Omar Blaik. "It's been exactly the same in terms of the responsibilities of each of the VPs.... All of us have quite a bit on their plate and things did not really stop and start."

Vice President for Finance and University Treasurer Craig Carnaroli agreed, crediting the success to a "strong team of VPs" and Rodin's increased accessibility during the summer months.

"I think that things are basically on track consistent with how the president and the trustees want them to move forward," Carnaroli said. "Nothing seems to have fallen out."

One reason for this may be the timing of Fry's departure, administrators said.

"By then he had built his own team and so all of the VPs were his recruitment," Blaik said. "Most, I would say, if not all of the projects that he was working on were running through one department or another and, as such, there hasn't been anything done outside these functional areas, really, that got lost in the shuffle."

Vice President for Business Services Leroy Nunery added that the transition was eased because administrators have already established their objectives for the fiscal year.

"We haven't missed a beat," Nunery said. "It's been pretty much as it has been."

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