OUR LEADERSHIP TEAM

R. William ‘Bill’ Funk, our Founder and President, is the best known and most widely respected search consultant serving higher education. He has been called the “guru of higher education recruiting” by The Chronicle of Higher Education and is listed as one of the 200 best executive recruiters in the world in The Global 200 Executive Recruiters: An Essential Guide to the Best Recruiters in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America (Jossey-Bass, Inc.).

On Wisconsin, a University of Wisconsin publication, proclaimed in an article several years ago, that “…Funk is higher education’s ultimate insider, its answer to the Kevin Bacon game: his list of friends and acquaintances includes the top officials at nearly every major American university. Pick any school on the map, and you’re likely to find no more than a few degrees of Bill Funk. …he has become the most highly regarded search consultant in higher education.”

Prior to founding his own firm 16 years ago, Mr. Funk was the National Practice Leader of the Education Practice and Office Managing Director of the Dallas Office for Korn/Ferry International for more than a decade.

Willie Funk is the Managing Vice President of the firm and holds an undergraduate degree from Emory University and a law degree from SMU’s Dedman Law School. He has an extensive background recruiting a lengthy list of Presidents, Provosts and Deans and has recently completed searches at Clemson University, University of California – Santa Cruz, University of South Carolina, TCU, Old Dominion University, College of Charleston, University of Kansas, and Radford University, among many others. Willie is known for his conscientious and caring approach to the search process and clients point to his 24/7 availability to communicate with the Search Committee/Board.

Krisha Creal is the firm’s Chief of Staff and has handled the administrative and scheduling aspects of the firm’s President and Chancellor searches. She is responsible for our password-protected ‘Client Center’ that will provide the Search Committee with materials on all active candidates and continually updated logs. She will assist with the coordination of Search Committee meetings on our consultants’ behalf and will work with candidates to schedule visits, obtain directed references, and coordinate lexis/nexis/google background checks on “short list” candidates. Mrs. Creal has worked with Bill Funk for 25 years, first at Korn/Ferry International and at R. William Funk & Associates for the past 16 years.