Presidential Search at Franklin University Switzerland

 

The Franklin University Switzerland (FUS) Presidential Search Committee invites applications, expressions of interest, and nominations of candidates in its search for the University’s next President. The search is being launched in response to President Greg Warden’s decision to retire from his position in June 2022, after 10 highly successful years leading the institution. FUS seeks a visionary, globally minded, and collaborative leader who can build on Franklin’s remarkable accomplishments and continue to enhance its profile and extend its reach around the world while remaining consistent with its mission and values.

FUS is a small international university located in the southern Swiss city of Lugano. Founded in 1969 as Franklin College, it was granted university status in 2013 and officially renamed itself Franklin University Switzerland in 2014. It is the only higher education institution in the world that is accredited in both the United States and Switzerland. Continuing its original vision to create a new kind of higher education, FUS now occupies 15 buildings, including eight residence halls, and offers undergraduate and graduate programs for students from over 60 countries majoring in any of 19 disciplines on two connected campuses. Academic Travel represents the single most distinctive element of the FUS curriculum, in which active field study is used as an experiential tool. Once a semester, students embark on travel connected to the course subject of one of their five classes, during which they apply the theoretical knowledge from the classroom into practice on site. FUS’s fundamental values have remained consistent throughout its half-century: personalized learning through interactions both inside and outside the classroom, true understanding of people and culture through direct contact and guided travel, and active engagement with the world as an imperative of a global, liberal education.

FUS has attracted some of the most adventurous students, creative faculty, resourceful administrators, and dedicated trustees, and today occupies a leadership position in higher education that is the envy of institutions of far greater size and resources.

Opportunity

The successful candidate for this unique leadership position will be expected to leverage FUS’s experience and human assets to address the challenges and opportunities the University faces in stabilizing and building its financial resources, enhancing the excellence of its educational programs, maintaining FUS’s exceptionally good relations with the local Ticinesi community, and raising FUS’s profile as a leader in meeting the “international imperative” for higher education.

The ideal candidate will have earned a terminal degree and have significant leadership and management experience in an education or related setting. A successful track record in fundraising and alumni relations is essential, as is experience developing institutional collaborations and partnerships and fostering community relations locally and regionally. The new President should be bilingual (English/Italian) and must have an abiding commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion as a guiding principle of FUS.

Click here to review the full prospectus.

To Learn More + Apply

FUS’s Board of Trustees has empowered a Search Committee, composed of five Trustees, one faculty member, and one administrator, to conduct an extensive global search for the next president. The Search Committee has retained the executive search firm of Dr. Thomas A. Biland Executive Search, in affiliation with Lindauer Global, to provide consulting services for this critical search. The search is being led by Dr. Thomas A. Biland and Paula Fazli, Founding Partner of Sage Search Partners and affiliate of Lindauer.

Inquiries, nominations, and applications (cover letter and CV) should be directed in confidence to FUSPresident@ThomasBiland.ch.