Doyon Foundation Announces New Executive Director: A Message from the Board
Doyon Foundation is pleased to announce the selection of Mark Holmgren as the new executive director. Holmgren has more than 20 years in executive-level leadership positions in the nonprofit sector. His accomplishments in building collaborative relationships and fundraising have produced remarkable results. His experience in social services and working with many Native cultures has resulted in tremendous accomplishments for the communities he has served. His ability to mentor and grow staff members and his communication style will be a real asset to Doyon Foundation and our staff.
Doyon Foundation embarked on a plan a year ago in order to improve life for Doyon shareholders through scholarships.
Building on the work of the past 20 years, the Doyon Foundation board set ambitious goals to begin to realize the true potential and purpose of the Foundation. These goals include creating an endowment fund of $100 million (from the present level of $8.5 million) in order to provide more education funding for Doyon shareholders and help them realize their full potential. The board also set goals for improving scholastic achievement and creating more opportunities for our shareholders to learn our language and culture.
With the departure of Sharon McConnell, the previous executive director who had ably guided the Foundation through a period of growth and achievement, the board reached out to stakeholders (Doyon, Limited and Doyon Foundation staff, board members and donors) to ask how they saw the vision of the Foundation and what direction the Foundation should take.
Without exception, the responses called for increases in funding, programs, staff and collaborative relationships. With those responses in mind, the board drew up a list of qualifications and skills required, and began a nationwide search for a new executive director who could take the Foundation to whole new heights in order to better serve Doyon shareholders.
Because this hiring decision was literally worth millions of dollars to the organization, and knowing that this would be probably one of the most important decisions they would make in many years, the Doyon Foundation board implemented a rigorous process called Targeted Selection® (TS) to help them make the best possible choice. TS® is recognized worldwide as the most accurate, proven behavioral interviewing and selection process in use. The TS® process begins with a focused look at the competencies, skills, background and knowledge required for high-level performance.
The success profile was developed to accomplish the goals of Doyon Foundation in order to promote self-reliance and the economic and social well-being of Doyon shareholders and descendents and to strengthen our Native culture and heritage though education. Key dimensions included a strong background in senior-level nonprofit management, proven experience in fundraising, direct responsibility for budget and portfolio management and a track record in mentoring staff.
The search committee posted announcements on five national philanthropic and association management job boards, undertook local advertising efforts, and sent a postcard to Doyon households. This resulted in 55 applications.
The applications were screened by a third-party contractor who compared each résumé against the targeted dimensions selected for the job. Then, 24 of the applicants were selected for the next step of the screening process. Of those, 16 responded to an in-depth questionnaire asking the candidates questions about their experiences and accomplishments as they related to the success of the Foundation. These responses were screened and scored, resulting in seven finalists. Each of the seven finalists participated in a rigorous, behavioral interview that was scored by the third-party contractor. The top three finalists were selected for the final round of screening and interviewing that took place in Fairbanks. Each candidate participated in two scored targeted simulations, and then was interviewed by the Foundation’s board of directors.
The final step of the process was data integration – where each candidate’s entire profile was rated based on their experience, knowledge, competencies, accomplishments, motivations and assessment scores. This process resulted in our selection of the most highly qualified candidate who can take our Foundation to new levels of accomplishment.
For further information regarding Doyon Foundation, please contact Doris Miller at 907.459.2050.