Hickman, Lee fill communications, development roles
USC has picked two internal candidates to take over as vice presidents of communications and development this spring while the university looks for permanent replacements in those roles.
Wes Hickman, the university’s spokesman and the director of news and internal communications, will take over as the communications vice president April 1, and Susan Lee, the assistant vice president for development, will serve as the development vice president starting April 15.
How their pay will change hasn’t been finalized yet, according to Chris Byrd, the vice president for human resources.
Hickman currently earns $107,120 per year, and Lee makes $175,100. Their predecessors, Luanne Lawrence and Michelle Dodenhoff, are paid $236,900 and $257,500, respectively, according to state records.
Both departments are in the midst of major programs started by the former department heads — “No Limits,” USC’s first integrated marketing campaign, and the billion-dollar fundraising effort Carolina’s Promise, the largest in university history.
USC President Harris Pastides said that he expected the interim appointments to keep those campaigns moving and that he picked the two after interviewing candidates and asking the opinions of the two outgoing vice presidents — Lawrence in communications and Dodenhoff in development.
Pastides said that he was reconsidering how the two departments are structured and that he wanted them to collaborate. He’s tasked Byrd with looking into how other universities structure them.
A national search for both positions should start soon, but Pastides said he was open to internal candidates vying for the jobs, noting that he was himself an internal hire picked from an external search.
Pastides said that a six-month time frame to fill the roles was “realistic” and that he planned to focus on firming up search details next week.
But he said he didn’t plan to rush the searches, saying that Hickman and Lee were strong appointments who could keep their departments on track.
“We don’t have to fret,” Pastides said in an interview from Paris Thursday evening.
In the meantime, Pastides said, the two will have to jump in with the ongoing efforts of their departments.
Communications isn’t far off from planning its TV spot to air during the football season, and development has to keep up with potential donors. The Carolina Promise campaign had raised $655 million at the end of December and hopes to hit $1 billion by 2015.
“It’s really more than keeping the trains running on time,” Pastides said. “It’s that, but it’s also continuing to lead and move forward.”