Posted on August 11, 2021
R. Keith Michel is planning to step down as president of Webb Institute effective June 30, 2022—and the search to find a successor is underway.
Founded in 1889 by New York-based shipbuilder William H. Webb, Webb Institute is a top-ranked undergraduate institution specializing in naval architecture and marine engineering. Webb is the only full-tuition scholarship, private undergraduate program of its kind in the United States, with a maximum of 28 students being accepted into the program each year. Webb Institute’s waterfront campus, is located in Glen Cove, N.Y., on the North Shore of Long Island.
Jon LaBerge, vice chairman of Webb’s Board of Trustees, is chairing the search committee. The search committee, working together with the national search firm WittKieffer, will conduct the search process, select and interview candidates, update the Webb community on the process and progress, and recommend a candidate to the Board for final approval.
“Webb provides a unique educational experience for its highly motivated and academically gifted student body,” notes LaBerge. “President Michel has had a remarkable tenure as president of Webb. Selecting his successor to build on Webb’s recent successes and lead us into the future is a critically important role of the Board of Trustees and one that we take very seriously. We look forward to an open and transparent process to identify a broad and diverse pool of candidates from which we will select Webb’s next president.”
The transition is expected to be complete by July 1, 2022. The finalists will be invited to campus to meet with the board, faculty, administration, and student representatives during the upcoming academic year.
The members of the search committee are as follows:
Jon J. LaBerge, Search Committee Chair; Bruce S. Rosenblatt, President of Bruce S. Rosenblatt & Associates, LLC; Dr. George Campbell Jr., President Emeritus of Cooper Union; Joseph J. Cuneo, retired Chairman of MARINEX International; Roderick MacKinnon, Professor at the Rockefeller University; Dr. Jennifer K. Waters, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at SUNY Maritime; and Christopher Wiernicki, Chairman, President, and CEO of American Bureau of Shipping.
- You can read the leadership profile prepared by Webb HERE.
