APS board to hire executive search firm

In its effort to find a new executive director, the American Philatelic Society's board of directors is now working out terms with an executive search firm to find a suitable individual to lead the organization.

The APS board voted unanimously a little more than a year ago to replace Ken Martin as the society’s executive director. Martin, who has served as executive director since 2009 (when he was appointed interim director), was offered the position of APS chief operating officer.

The board's first effort to locate and interview individual candidates last summer did not result in a hiring.

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At the board's Feb. 12 meeting in Riverside, Calif., the directors heard a report from APS Vice President Mick Zais, who in September was named to head a committee to retain the services of an executive search firm.

Zais said that the committee wrote a job description and contacted potential search firms to find out if they were interested in receiving a request for proposal from the APS. Out of the seven firms that responded, the committee narrowed the field down to three, and then settled on a single firm, which Zais did not name.

The agreement with the firm is not yet finalized, Zais said, but APS Vice President Alex Haimann, a member of the committee, told the board, "We're in the last 2 percent of the process of hiring the firm; we're just literally agreeing to the last bit of the language."

Once that agreement is reached, the board needs to approve the contract, which will then be signed by APS President Stephen Reinhard. Plans call for the board to vote on Feb. 19.

"Our goal, of course, is to be able to introduce our executive director at Stampshow in Michigan," Zais told the board.

The annual APS Stampshow will take place Aug. 20-23 in Grand Rapids, Mich.

The cost for the executive search will be approximately $25,000 plus expenses (roughly $30,000 altogether), according to Zais. The APS has $30,500 allotted for this search, money which came from a donation specially designated for the purpose of undertaking the search.

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