R. William (Bill) Funk is the best known and most widely respected search consultant serving higher education. He has been called the “guru of higher education recruiting” in The Chronicle of Higher Education and is listed as one of the 200 best 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, the University of Wisconsin Alumni Magazine, proclaimed in an article 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.”

Mr. Funk has conducted more than 300 searches for college and university Presidents and Chancellors. Among the nearly 70 currently sitting Presidents he has helped recruit, are many of the nation’s most respected and admired university chief executives, including: Mark G. Yudof, President of the University of California System, Donna Shalala at the University of Miami; David Skorton at Cornell University; France Cordova at Purdue University; Holden Thorp, Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; John V. Lombardi at the LSU System; and Mark Emmert at the University of Washington.

After leading the Education Practice at the nation’s largest corporate recruiting firm for 14 years, Mr. Funk’s perspective on higher education led him to conclude that his clients could be better served by a firm solely focusing on higher education and by consultants dedicated to their academic clientele. R. William Funk & Associates is the manifestation of this vision.