The Board of Regents announced the names of the 21-person Iowa State University Presidential Search Thursday.

The committee is will chose the finalists for the next president to replace Steven Leath who is leaving to take the same position at Auburn. Regents executive director, Robert Donley, told the board at its meeting in Council Bluffs that they are finalizing the selection of a search firm to help the committee.

He says they expect to award a contract to the search firm by May 3rd. The search committee will be co-chaired by the CEO of the Principal Financial Group, Dan Houston and Iowa State College of Design dean Luis Gutierrez. The committee consists of eight members of the ISU faculty and two students in addition to representatives from the ISU Alumni Association, the ISU Foundation, and the Ames community.

Regents Patty Cownie, Sherry Bates, Milt Dakovich, and Nancy Boettger (Butt-ger) also will serve on the committee with Donley and Board of Regents Chief Operating Officer Mark Braun serving in ex-officio non-voting roles. The committee is scheduled to hold its first meeting in late May. Donley says they should be ready to vote on a new president by this fall.

“We expect that we will have a president that will be before the board for approval in September,” Donley says. Leath leaves Ames on May 8th and former UNI president and ISU provost Ben Allen will serve as the interim president.