Rod McDavis, Ph.D.

Managing Principal

AGB Search

President Emeritus, Ohio University

Dr. Roderick J. McDavis became the Managing Principal of AGB Search on March 1, 2017 after serving as president of Ohio University for 13 years. Dr. McDavis is responsible for leading and managing all components of AGB Search including Executive Search, Interim Search, and Compensation Evaluation Service. In addition, he is responsible for developing new business opportunities for the firm and

attending national higher education conferences to represent AGB Search. He also serves as an executive search consultant for some of the firm’s searches.

His recent search experiences include presidential searches at the University of Minnesota (MN), Suffolk University (MA), Boise State University (ID), Seminole State College (FL), and Florida State College at Jacksonville (FL), provost searches at the University of Montana (MT) and St. John’s University (NY), the senior vice president for academic affairs search at Columbus State Community College (OH), and the vice president for inclusive excellence search at Virginia Commonwealth University (VA).

He has held various academic and administrative positions at the University of Florida, the University of Arkansas, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Ohio University.

Dr. McDavis was the first African American president of Ohio University and only the second alumnus to lead the university during its 214-year history. His contributions included assisting in the development of the state of Ohio’s technology commercialization implementation plan, the state’s first guaranteed tuition plan – the Ohio Guarantee™ – and the first-of-its-kind performance-based funding model in the nation. He developed and implemented Ohio University’s comprehensive strategic plan and was instrumental in the success of The Promise Lives Campaign, which raised over half a billion dollars in support of students and programs.

Some of the initiatives that were started during his tenure include The Urban Scholar and Appalachian Scholar programs, The Interlink Alliance partnership, the Century Bond Debt Management Strategy, the Ohio Innovation Fund, and the expansion of the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine to new campuses in Dublin and Cleveland.