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Notes from the SCAR President, number 15 (September 2009 Special Edition)
Dr. Michael Sparrow Appointed SCAR Excecutive Director
Colleagues,
It is with great pleasure that I report that the SCAR Executive Director Search Committee (Kennicutt [Chair], Ravindra, Huiskes, Meloni, Marensii and Rapley) has successfully concluded its search for SCAR's next Executive Director. This will be a critical transition for SCAR and the Committee is unanimous in its choice of a successor to Colin, SCAR's first Executive Director.
After a thorough international search over a period of nearly six months, the Committee collectively agreed that Dr Michael Sparrow, SCAR's current Executive Officer (EO), was the candidate that best met the qualifications of the position of Executive Director. Dr Sparrow came to SCAR two years ago as Executive Officer. Dr Sparrow has a PhD in Oceanography from the University of East Anglia in 1996. He also has an MSc in Atmospheric/Climate Science and BSc in Physics. Dr Sparrow served as Staff Scientist and Project Coordinator for six years at International CLIVAR before coming to SCAR. As Executive Officer, Dr Sparrow has been intimately involved in the affairs of SCAR and taken a leadership role in a variety of SCAR activities since his appointment as EO. He is also fluent in Spanish.
Dr Sparrow was selected from a pool of 17 candidates that applied after wide advertisement of the position. Based on initial application materials; which included a cover letter, a CV, and other supporting matter the candidates wished to provide; the candidates were independently assessed by each Committee member using a standard set of ten selection criteria based on the position description and the advertisement. Search Committee members were instructed to base their ratings on an absolute scale of 0 to 10, assessing the qualification of the candidates in each category. If a Committee member felt there was insufficient information to rate the candidate on any selection criteria, they indicated it with an "I". Individual criterion and total ratings were reported to the Committee, summed, and normalized for any "I" designations. The candidates were ranked based on the total Committee rating of candidates (i.e., the sum of the individual ratings for all criteria by all Committee members).
Based on the collective, normalized ratings of the Committee, the top five candidates were asked for additional information. Additional information included references from three people familiar with the candidate. The candidates were also asked to address any criterion that Committee members indicated there was insufficient information available. One of the five candidate asked to no longer be considered for the position. Based on the additional information, the remaining candidates were again rated on the ten selection criteria. Committee members were instructed to rate the finalists on all ten criteria relative to the other finalists. The candidates were ranked based on the total Committee ratings of candidates (i.e., the sum of the individual ratings for all criteria by all Committee members).
Both assessments resulted in Dr Sparrow being the highest ranked candidate, the unanimous top choice of all Committee members and therefore the Committee felt that further information or interviews would not alter the final decision. With the agreement of the Committee, I negotiated the terms of employment with Dr Sparrow.
All candidates were notified in a timely manner when they were no longer under consideration. All correspondence related to the search (including rating and references) was kept strictly confidential within the Search Committee assisted by Rosemary Nash, SCAR Administrative Assistant. Other SCAR Secretariat staff were not involved in the search or allowed access to application materials.
To ensure a smooth transition to the new Secretariat leadership, Dr Sparrow will become the SCAR Executive Director Designee on February 1, 2010. This will allow for an overlap with the current Executive Director whose term will end March 31, 2010. On that date Dr Sparrow will assume the full responsibilities as Executive Director of SCAR. During this time, the current Executive Director will also be expending significant accrued vacation time.
The Executive Committee and Secretariat have begun discussions about replacement of the Executive Officer (EO). This is an opportune time to review the structure of the Secretariat, since the EO position will be vacant shortly, to ensure that the current structure, which was instituted during the SCAR Restructuring in 2004, is the most efficient and cost effective arrangement. It is expected that the SCAR Secretariat will be fully staffed when Dr Sparrow assumes the Executive Director position on April 1, 2010.
I ask that you join me in congratulating Dr Sparrow on his selection and I have indicated to him that I look forward to working with him during the remainder of my Presidency. If you have any questions please contact me.
Chuck K.
President of SCAR
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