Former university presidents John W. Garland, Dr. Dorothy C. Yancy and Dr. Sidney Ribeau who launched TM2 Executive Search several years ago, disbanded it recently to join the consulting team for the executive recruiter Academic Search.
The leaders’ new venture expands the firm’s capacity to attract diverse leadership in executive higher education roles and enriches its ability to identify and cultivate skilled leaders for historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
“John, Dorothy and Sidney will all be senior consultants with the firm,” said Dr. L. Jay Lemons, president of Academic Search. “They each bring decades of experience and a deep passion for the Academy. Each brings an extensive network of colleagues not to just enhance HBCU searches, but all of our searches.”
After meetings and conversations between the leaders of Academic Search, TM2 Executive Search and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF), the organizations found that there were parallels in each organization’s philosophies.
“The founding insights and values of the two organizations align perfectly,” said TMCF president Dr. Harry Williams.
“We both saw search as strategic opportunities for institutional growth and vitality, not simply transactions,” Lemons added. “We view our role as institutional partners not as vendors, and both organizations had eleemosynary roots to serve the public good.”
John W. Garland, former president of Central State University and former executive chairman of TM² Search, pointed to Academic Search’s status as the oldest higher education search company in the U.S. in regards to how the firm will bolster the TM² Search leaders’ ability to recruit qualified leadership for HBCUs and other majority institutions.
