Chief HR Officer search reaches final stage

Chief Human Resources Officer finalists Patrick Sheehan and Mary Lucal will return to campus for a final round of conversations with executive leadership and others as the university continues this important search. The candidates will be on campus Dec. 14-16.

Four candidates visited campus in mid-November at the recommendation of the 10-member search committee led by College of Letters & Science Dean Eric Wilcots. All members of the campus community were invited to attend public presentations and provide feedback on each candidate via an online form available in six languages. Video recordings of the public presentations are still available on the search website; however, the opportunity to provide feedback has closed.

“The chief human resources officer role is a critical position for UW–Madison,” Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Rob Cramer said. “The search committee brought forward a strong pool of candidates, and we have invited Mary and Patrick to return to campus based on the feedback I received from employees during the first round of on-campus interviews.”

Sheehan currently serves as interim associate vice chancellor and chief human resources officer at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Lucal is the associate vice chancellor for human resources at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

More information about both finalists can be found at vc.wisc.edu/chro.

The chief human resources officer provides leadership, policy direction, and management oversight for all human resources initiatives and functions for UW–Madison. The university has more than 31,000 faculty and staff, including about 2,300 faculty, approximately 15,000 staff across multiple shifts, more than 5,400 graduate assistants and post-degree training staff, and nearly 9,000 student employees.