Transition Update

Thanks to the NewNorth community for your excitement and encouragement surrounding Nate’s transition and for the candidates who have surfaced in the search process. We’ve received some questions as well; our answers to the most common are below.

1. What’s the next step for NewNorth?
NewNorth will continue to execute its strategic plan. We have grown tremendously over the past three years and that trend is continuing. Our latest IMC class kicked off earlier this month, and we have a number of BSS, InnovationNOW!, and custom programs in the pipeline.

2. How is the search process going?
Our search committee, chaired by Michael Warsaw, officially launched last week (9/9) and is made up of nine people, including alumni, board members, staff and advisors, as well as Nate. By Thanksgiving, we hope to have a final candidate selected, with that person fully in their role by the end of the calendar year.

3. What will Nate’s participation look like moving forward?
Nate will be involved with NewNorth programming through the end of the year, honoring previous commitments and agreements. Moving forward, Nate will continue to teach as an adjunct faculty member and he will also join the NewNorth Board of Directors.

His new role at NewellRubbermaid officially begins on October 1.

4. Will the programming change?
Over the last three years, the NewNorth team has written and revised over 45 modules around innovation. We will look to the new leader to be very active in adding to that library of content. Nate will also continue to write and contribute, and will work with the team to revise and adapt current modules so that they remain relevant.

Leadership Transitions at NewNorth

To date NewNorth has served over 200 companies, graduated 60 alumni from the Innovation Methods Certification course (IMC) and broadly reached over 2,500 people via custom programs and community outreach. After five years of development, launch and implementation – and with a solid curricular base and a great team – NewNorth is transitioning to new leadership.

In October, Nate will be beginning a new role as Global VP of Innovation at Newell Rubbermaid, at the company’s new facility in Kalamazoo. Nate will move to an active role on the NewNorth board and will remain engaged with NewNorth programming through the end of the year.

The board launched a search committee last week and will be aggressively recruiting talent over the next four weeks. If you have thoughts, questions and potential candidates, we welcome your feedback at info@newnorthcenter.org.