To respond in brief on the m|Oppenheim hire to support us administratively on this search, board searches are incredibly time and resource intensive, and need to be handled with a great deal of sensitivity. We already have a great many interested parties, so the task needs to include screening hundreds of people in a very short amount of time - within the next month - (screening first bios and then phone screens to gauge initial fit and interest), writing summaries of each candidate for the board for their consideration, setting up the board interviews which requires international coordination at multiple stages, and a host of other things.
m|Oppenheim ran the searches for the senior leadership team at WMF except for Erik and Frank, so they have the advantage of knowing us pretty well and how quirky we are, and they are scouring their international network to find the right talent to augment the existing board skill set and competencies.
Please do feel free to reach out to me if you have additional questions!
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