Board Agrees Action Plan for Second Attempt at Selecting a New Executive Director

Author:

Bernard Rivers

Article Number: 6

ABSTRACT The Global Fund Board has approved an Action Plan for its second attempt at selecting a new Executive Director for the Fund. Candidates must apply by December 17; a Board committee will conduct interviews in mid-January; and the Board will make a final decision on February 8-9.

The Global Fund Board has approved an Action Plan for its second attempt at selecting a new Executive Director for the Fund. (As reported in GFO Issue 68, the first attempt failed when none of the shortlisted candidates gained the support of two-thirds of the “donor group” of the Board plus two-thirds of the “recipient group”.)

The Action Plan was originally drafted by the Board’s Nomination Committee. GFO’s summary of the key points in the plan is as follows:

• The position was advertised in The Economist on 1 December. (It is also advertised on the Fund’s website at www.theglobalfund.org/en/jobs/ed.asp.)
• Candidates who apply directly must do so by December 17.
• The Board’s Nomination Committee (NC), at its discretion, will also consider some of the candidates who applied last time, particularly the original shortlisted five (unless they withdraw).
• Board members can suggest additional names to the NC that they think are worthy of consideration. This too must be done by December 17. The NC may then ask the NC Chair to approach some of these people, direct or via intermediaries, to ascertain their interest in being considered for the position.
• The NC, based in part on input from the full Board and representatives of the Secretariat staff, will develop a weighting and ranking of the selection criteria.
• The NC, assisted by an executive search firm, will decide by 2 January which candidates to interview, and will conduct the interviews on 14-16 January.
• The NC will then, based on the interviews and the weighting/ranking of the selection criteria, choose the five best candidates, and will rank them. (The purpose of the ranking within the top five will simply be to inform the full Board of the NC’s views.)
• Each of the five shortlisted candidates will then be informed of his/her ranking, and will be given the opportunity, if they wish, of withdrawing from the process at that point, thereby preventing their just-ended candidacy from becoming known by the Board or the wider world. (The NC will be transparent regarding its procedures, but the names of the people it considers will be treated on a completely confidential basis. NC members serve in their personal capacities, and have signed a confidentiality agreement.)
• By 19 January, the full Board will be informed of the names and rankings of the five shortlisted candidates (unless any of them withdraw). The Board will then meet the shortlisted candidates at a retreat on February 7.
• The full Board will then choose one of the shortlisted candidates at a board meeting in Geneva (to be attended only by board members and alternates) on February 8-9. The decision-making procedure to be followed at this board meeting may possibly involve using (or, as needed, falling back to) a less demanding standard than the “double two-thirds majority” requirement. Whether this will be the case will be decided by the Board by 12 January.