The Board of Trustees has chosen PPL Incorporated as the search firm to manage the criteria for superintendent/presidential candidates in light of president Dena Maloney’s retirement announcement.

PLL Inc. was being considered alongside Pauly Group for the purpose of narrowing the search for potential candidates, the decision to hire PPL came during the Oct. 19 Board of Trustees meeting.

“Both companies were extremely well qualified,” Trustee Nilo Michelin said in the meeting. “It was a tough decision, but based on the local experience, I feel more comfortable with PPL.”

Now that the BOT has chosen PPL Inc., Vice President of Human Resources Jane Miyashiro is in the process of getting the company contracted to facilitate the search for superintendent/president candidates.

“It’ll be their role and their job to review the applications that come in and make the determination whether or not the applicants meet the minimum qualifications based on our challenges and our initiatives that we’re working on,” Miyashiro said.

The BOT held a special meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 7, where Ben Duran, president for PPL Incorporated search firm, said that having a diverse pool of qualified candidates was an important factor for the company and they are dedicated to recruiting for diversity to give an equal opportunity to candidates.

“[California is] one of the most diverse states, if not the most diverse state in the nation, and everyone should have an opportunity to participate,” Duran said.

PPL’s proposal shows community colleges in California the firm has served, including Los Angeles Valley College and San Luis Obispo College.

The Pauly Group proposal
shows they’ve helped community colleges across the nation from
Pennsylvania to Virginia to New York. But the only community college in
California they have served is Solano Community College in Fairfield.

The board’s reason for choosing PPL Inc. was how the company did their research on ECC during a special board meeting on Oct. 7 and how the board called the company “well-versed and experienced.”

In contrast, Pauly Group is located in Illinois, and the board said they wanted a firm close to home.

“[The Board of Trustees] provided their rationale for why they chose PPL and it seems like they were really impressed with the fact that PPL was very familiar with the California Community College system and had done a lot of executive searches in our area and so they decided to go with that firm,” Miyashiro said.