BCBusiness

November 2016 Here Comes Santa Ono

With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.

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Ono's name wasn't bandied about from the beginning of the search process, nor was it a headhunter who lured him in. Although he was attracting notice as the interesting young president of the University of Cincinnati—an institution that's long been seen as a springboard to bigger university posts—Ono and the search committee didn't intersect until after a chance meeting. Ono, a keynote speaker at the American Marketing Association's symposium for the marketing of higher education last November in Chicago, was alerted to the new job when a UBC communications officer, Julie Ovenell, stood up and told him he was exactly the kind of person UBC was looking for. According to accounts that have rippled out from the interview process, there were three strong candidates by the end. But Ono stood out and was the unanimous choice. People familiar with the inner conversations at UBC say there's a tremendous sense of relief that it's someone like Ono who's been chosen and that he starts with a lot of goodwill. In spite of that, however, Ono also faces enormous chal- lenges. Everyone who knows the post-secondary world knows that all universities are difficult fiefdoms to manage at the best of times—and UBC ranks among the most complex. It's enor- mous, for one thing, with 60,000 students (on two campuses, spread 400 kilometres apart), 15,000 faculty and staff, and a $2.3-billion budget—twice the size of the City of Vancouver's. Department heads are like medieval princes, with their own fundraising and, in some cases, research arms. UBC has its own property-development board and disgruntled residents' asso- ciation. There is a board of governors, two senates and associa- tions of faculty, managers, staff and students who all have their say in whatever happens. "You have to do rounds of consulta- tion for everything," says Newman. "There's a lot of egos." This next year will be the test. "The first year is just to calm the waters," says Newman. Ono will need to pick a team to help him steer such a large ship, say several experienced university DIFFICULT FIEFDOMS TO MANAGE AT THE BEST OF TIMES—AND UBC RANKS AMONG THE MOST COMPLEX NOVEMBER 2016 BCBUSINESS 31

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