[Vision2020] UI''s Financial Expert Getting More Costly

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (April 19, 2005) Spokesman Review.

At a base fee of over $240,000 per year, UI's outsourced financial expert's
fees are increasing.

I wonder if this tune will play well at the Trinity Fest.

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UI's financial expert getting more costly 

Compensation for consultant to exceed initial estimates
Associated Press
April 19, 2005

BOISE - A turnaround expert hired by the University of Idaho to remedy its
money woes will cost the school significantly more than the originally
announced $20,000 monthly pay figure, Idaho State Board of Education
documents show.

The education board will consider the hiring of David Chichester, 59, as
interim vice president of financial affairs and administration at meetings
starting Thursday in Idaho Falls.

Documents included with the board's agenda show Idaho must also provide
Tatum Partners, an Atlanta-based headhunting firm, with a $5,000 monthly
payment for "partial compensation for resources provided," as well as a
$25,000 security deposit to ensure Idaho doesn't breach its contract.

In addition, the school must pay for thrice-monthly trips to Chichester's
Bainbridge Island, Wash., home, as well as providing a car and housing
allowance.

Idaho President Tim White hired Chichester, a former financial officer at
Starbucks Corp.'s Japanese unit, as the school attempts to retire $20
million in debt. 

Without offering Chichester and Tatum higher-than-average remuneration,
compensation experts said, the university would have struggled to attract
somebody with his Harvard Business School credentials - especially without
being able to offer stock options or other benefits that might come from a
private-sector company.

"Why should someone walk into a situation that's full of problems?" said
Diane Posnak, managing director at Pearl Meyers & Partners, a New York-based
executive compensation consulting firm. "It's not surprising they would end
up having to pay to get his services."

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Take care, Moscow.

Tom Hansen

"What is objectionable, what is dangerous, about extremists is not that they
are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say
about their cause, but what they say about their opponents."

-- Robert F. Kennedy