AD search David McClain hasn't searched for an athletic director before, but he does have experience securing the services of a high-ranking University of Hawaii official.
committee
meets today
McClain heads UH's
advisory group that is looking
for Yoshida's replacementBy Dave Reardon
dreardon@starbulletin.comThe chair of the search advisory committee to replace the retiring Hugh Yoshida led the group that found Carol Eastman. Eastman was the vice chancellor under UH president Kenneth Mortimer until she died in 1997.
McClain is the dean of UH's college of business administration. He has held his current post since January 2000 and has been at UH since 1991.
"Running searches is a familiar drill," he said. "You get as rich a pool as possible, interview and review the applicants in a timely but fair manner and move to decision."
McClain, 55, is a sports fan. "I'm in mourning, though, since Kansas lost," said McClain, who was the classmate of Jayhawks All-American JoJo White.
McClain and the rest of the committee are charged with recommending finalists for the position in July. He said it will probably be between two and five people, "depending on what the president (Evan Dobelle) wants," he said.
Yoshida, who announced in February he will retire at the end of the year, said he will assist in the transition.
"I want to do what's best for the university," he said. "I'm flexible."
The committee holds its first meeting today.
These are the other members (affiliation is UH unless noted):
Keith Amemiya (executive director, Hawaii High School Athletic Association), Carolyn Berry (community leader), Ronald Cambra (associate dean, arts and sciences), Paul Costello (vice president for external affairs and university relations), Anthony Guerrero (vice president, First Hawaiian Bank, member of Stadium Authority Board), Bitsy Kelley (director, brand and business development, Outrigger Hotels), Bert Kobayashi Jr. (attorney at law), Edward Kuba (attorney at law), Faye Kurren (president, Tesoro Hawaii), Joel Matsunaga (vice president, external affairs, Verizon Hawaii), Marilyn Moniz-Kaho'ohanohano (assistant athletic director/senior women administrator), Thomas Rohr (president, Transcontinental Properties and Rohr Pacific Properties).
Also, two students and a faculty representative will be added to the committee.
The committee reports to interim chancellor Deane Neubauer, who selected its members.
"We all recognize the importance of UH athletics to the people of Hawaii," Neubauer said in a release. "We know that our program needs strong and visionary leadership. The committee will be looking for an individual with those qualities, and someone who will carry forward our strong commitment to higher education in the student-athlete equation."
UH has not begun accepting applications for the post yet, but former UH and Arizona football coach Dick Tomey, current associate athletic director Jim Donovan and Western Athletic Conference commissioner Karl Benson are among the candidates believed to be interested.
George Rush, football coach and athletic director at San Francisco Community College, worked for Dobelle there in the past. He is currently a consultant to UH, helping determine the feasibility of developing a community college athletic program. But sources say Rush is not interested in the athletic director job.
UH Athletics
