After eight years at the helm of VCU's Brandcenter, one of the nation's pre-eminent advertising graduate schools, Rick Boyko is retiring as its director.
Boyko joined Virginia Commonwealth University's graduate-level advertising and marketing school in 2003.
"Originally when I came, I said I wanted to do five years," but the challenge of leading an institution on the cutting edge of the ad industry extended that commitment, he said Monday.
The search for Boyko's replacement began Monday, according to an email sent out to alumni in the morning. To help identify potential candidates for the director's position, the school, along with Richmond ad agency WORK Labs, has created a website, http://thewhosearch.com.
The Brandcenter hopes to have someone in place by Jan. 1. The new director would spend a semester transitioning into the new role. Boyko will stay on until a replacement is found.
Mike Hughes, president of The Martin Agency and chairman of the school's board of directors, is leading the hunt along with Ed Grier, VCU's business school dean.
"We're positioning this as the most important job in the advertising industry," Hughes said Monday from New York City. "What we want the Brandcenter to be is the place where the industry goes to do its thinking."
Hughes said the search committee will look at candidates with graduate education experience, industry connections, or young industry professionals who have something new to bring.
The new director needs to be "someone the industry, faculty and students can get excited about in the long term," Hughes said.
Diane Cook-Tench, the school's founding director who helped build its national profile, said Monday that she thinks the Brandcenter can send a message with its hire.
"The school was started with the focus on graduating future industry leaders. The industry especially needs female and minority leaders. It would be wonderful to see more emphasis placed on this important work," she said.
Boyko came to the Brandcenter, then known as the Adcenter, after stepping down as co-president and chief creative officer of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide Inc., a top advertising agency in the country. During Boyko's tenure at VCU, the school continued to expand its already national reputation, making it one of the top-rated advertising schools in the country, with graduates working at some of the top agencies in the industry.
Also, the school moved into a new state-of-the-art building on South Jefferson Street in Richmond. Boyko and his wife donated $1 million to the effort.
Terry Taylor, creative director at Richmond ad agency Big River, worked with Boyko at Ogilvy & Mather.
"The Brandcenter was always a creative machine for the area, but under Rick it became an economic machine," he said.
Taylor said Boyko's straightforward approach brought out the best in the creative talent at Ogilvy & Mather while earning him the nickname "Sgt. Boyko."
"Rick did the same at the Brandcenter in his time here," he said. "He elevated the work (at the Brandcenter), the reputation and the visibility of the school to an international level. That's more important to Richmond than a lot of people realize."
In the past two years, Boyko's focus has been divided among the day-to-day operations of the school, fundraising and promoting the Brandcenter to agencies around the country.
"I saw after the economy went south that I needed to do a better job promoting" the school, he said.
The downside was that it took time away from the classroom, one of the primary reasons he took the position, Boyko said.
"What really convinced me to (retire) was that I haven't been as connected to students, and not having that connection makes this more of a job," he said.
Boyko said he would like to continue teaching and could work on an executive education program at VCU.
He has been asked to remain on the Brandcenter's board, where he has served since 2000. Boyko said he would leave that decision up to the next director.
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