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Nexus Louisiana is working toward selecting a new president and CEO in January.
At its first meeting since July, the organization’s board of directors―facing key vacancies in its leadership―on Wednesday addressed its longstanding search for a replacement for former President and CEO Genevieve Silverman, who left in June 2022, as well as a transition plan to replace departing technology park Executive Director Stephen Loy with a temporary stand-in within the next 30 days until a permanent executive is identified.
Loy, who had been with Nexus for over 20 years, left Nexus last month to accept a position with LSU-led FUEL.
Nexus management consultant Calvin Mills has handled leadership responsibilities for the organization since 2022 and provided Nexus Louisiana’s transition plan following Loy’s departure.
The two employees working under Loy will continue their work with the Nexus programs and now report to Mills, who has said he intends to apply for the president and CEO position.
“We have some recommendations to bring on some extra hands, preferably in a contractual opportunity that may lead to permanent employment later, but it comes out to be a net zero for us because of the savings we have with Stephen’s salary,” Mill explained Wednesday.
Mills says Nexus will start looking to bring someone in on a contractual basis within the next 30 days until a new CEO is in place to hire a permanent executive director.
The organization will search for someone familiar with the energy sector, given that the incubator is a part of the $160 million grant the National Science Foundation awarded LSU-led FUEL earlier this year.
Also on Wednesday, Edmund Giering, co-chair of the selection committee overseeing the search for a new president and CEO, said executive search firm Isaacson, Miller began stakeholder input and outreach after a contract was finalized with the firm in July.
Interviews with stakeholders began in August. “Since that time, they have put together what is not only a job description, but it’s really what opportunities and challenges are faced by both the organization and the successful candidate in this process,” Giering said.
The search committee has dates blocked off in early December and January for telephone and video interviews for the candidates. The semifinalists will be interviewed in person.
“We have put out early January for extensive time with the potential finalist candidates,” Giering told the board, “to be able to make a recommendation to you at a board meeting sometime in January, with the hopes that within 30 days, that person would be on the ground and taking over in the position.”
He says the search committee will also be mindful of any potential candidates to replace Loy that may be discovered during the CEO search.
“With Stephen’s departure, what has become a question in this process is, ‘Could you possibly find a tech park director in the search process?’ That’s possible,” he says. “We hadn’t really thought about that two months ago, but now that we have that challenge ahead of us, I think certainly the search committee will keep its eyes and ears open and provide any recommendations that may come along as we continue to move through the search.”
