EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT
SPCA of TEXAS www.spca.org LOCATION: 2400 Lone Star Drive Dallas, TX 75212 REPORTS TO: President & CEO
MISSION
The SPCA of Texas is dedicated to providing every animal exceptional care and a loving home.
BACKGROUND The origin of the SPCA of Texas hails back to the year 1888 when the Dallas Humane Society (the forerunner of the SPCA of Texas) was the first humane society in the state. Throughout the next 105 years, with mergers and name changes, the SPCA of Texas evolved into the premier agency it now has become. The SPCA of Texas is the leading animal welfare agency in North Texas with two shelters, three spay/neuter clinics, two mobile spay/neuter clinics, one mobile adoptions unit and an animal rescue center located in Dallas and in Collins Counties. The SPCA serves as an active resource center providing an array of programs and services that bring people and animals together to enrich each other’s lives. Under the dedicated and talented leadership of James Bias, who has been the President & CEO for the past 14 years, the organization has been transformed from an inner city, one building facility to a sprawling campus with the stateof-the-art Jan Rees-Jones Animal Care Center, the Myron K. Martin Spay/Neuter and Animal Wellness Clinic and the Russell E. Dealey Animal Rescue Center. In fact, Rescue, Rehabilitate and ReHome is the motto of the SPCA of Texas and through each of these initiatives, the SPCA works to help as many animals as it can to provide excellent care and to find new, loving homes. Approximately 9,900 animals are received each year
Assisting animals in crisis is another hallmark of the SPCA of Texas. When Hurricane Harvey hit Houston in 2017, the SPCA of Texas helped more than 600 pets affected by the storm. A dedicated team transferred 200 adoptable animals from locations along the coast to the Dallas shelter, transported another 200 to other shelters and offered long-term housing for evacuees at the Dallas Shelter as well as establishing emergency sheltering in the old Reunion Area parking garage. with a total of approximately 7,200 being adopted. The balance is reunited with their owners or transferred to other facilities for adoption. Investigating reports of animal cruelty is one of the toughest but one of the most vital parts of the mission of the SPCA of Texas. With a crew of six full time humane investigators, one chief investigator and one case manager, the Animal Cruelty Investigations Unit responds to more than 3,000 cases of cruelty each year. These calls often are requests for investigation for animals without food, water, shelter or care. However, calls of cruel confinement, abuse, cock/dog fighting and neglect also are received by this team. The Russell E. Dealey Animal Rescue Center housed 2,500 animals in 2017, providing a safe and secure environment for cruelty seizures and surrenders.
The SPCA of Texas is proud to be the host agency to the North Texas Link Coalition. This agency works to educate the public about the LINK between human and animal abuse and trains professionals, including animal welfare staff on how a multi-disciplinary approach to abuse can help them and their clients. With three veterinary clinics strategically positioned in Dallas, McKinney and at Village Fair in Dallas, the community’s animals are well taken care of. These three clinics performed more than 31,900 wellness exams in 2017 and spayed or neutered more than 21,000 animals. With fees made affordable to the pet owner through generous donations from the community, the SPCA of Texas can provide basic preventative care for all animals coming to these clinics.
THE OPPORTUNITY With a mission to ensure that all animals have the right to the Five Freedoms of animal welfare, SPCA of Texas has continued to grow its reach and footprint year after year. In the past decade, the budget has increased from about $7M to $19M and staff has expanded from 100 to 225 members. While growth in terms of programs and animals served will continue to be a priority there is also a need to refine the organizational infrastructure. The SPCA of Texas must ensure that metrics for accountability and reporting are embraced by all parts of the organization so as to better support staff, volunteers, Board members and the public. Additionally, staff, volunteers and the Board will benefit from a well thought-out and executed process for communicating opportunities or concerns to the SPCA of Texas leadership. To facilitate this will require identifying and implementing clearly articulated measures of success and being held accountable to realize these goals. On the animal welfare side, the new Jan Rees-Jones shelter is a stunning facility with excellent features. However, when it was built the focus was on putting animals up for adoption as quickly as possible. This remains the priority, but it means that more animals need to have extended behavioral or medical care before they become adoptable. Updating Standard Operating Procedures to accommodate for this shift is needed Programmatically, there is an opportunity to become more engaged with equine rescue. This new program needs to be vetted to ensure that the organization can financially sustain this work. Additionally, SPCA of Texas would like to continue to aggressively pursue cruelty cases with a goal to identify ways to educate communities on proper animal care.
After a thorough assessment of the organization, the CEO and Board have decided to create the new position of Executive Vice President. The purpose of this role will be to function as the right hand of the President in driving metrics of success internally and to be able to present the organization to internal and external audiences when needed, including the Board of Directors.
CORE COMPETENCIES LEADERSHIP Provide counsel and advice to the President & CEO on policy, communications, procedures, operations and all matters relevant to building a highly functioning organization and meeting the mission of SPCA of Texas. Keep the CEO aware of issues or opportunities and proactively identify those that impact the CEO’s goals. Demonstrate high standards and inspire staff, employees and volunteers. Maintain a working knowledge of significant developments and trends in the field. Play an integral role in developing a strategic plan and ensuring that the plan serves as a guide for decision making, priority and goal setting. ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS Lead the development and implementation of key performance indicators. Proactively identify performance trends, ensure ongoing reporting and engagement of team on successes, shortcomings and mid-course corrections, as needed. Drive the development, implementation and continuous improvement of organizational protocols and practices to ensure the best use of organizational resources. Provide leadership, vision, coaching and professional development opportunities. TEAM MANAGEMENT & ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT Create a quality team; foster a climate of continuous improvement, supportive collaboration and problem solving; facilitate staff
Hold stakeholder meetings to ascertain issues and concerns and conduct shuttle diplomacy and conflict resolution on behalf of the CEO.
meetings to gather input, training and updates. Identify operational gaps or inefficiencies, and develop competency, structural or process-based solutions. In partnership with Vice Presidents, coach administrative staff as well as shelter and clinic staff. Manage work performance standards and reviews; coach, inspire and course correct. Proactively address initiatives that are off-track, over-budget or behind schedule. Recommend and administer processes, policies, and procedures to all staff and volunteers. Ensure that staff performs duties and responsibilities in a safe and prudent manner. Work closely with the President & CEO to develop clear annual and quarterly priorities and ensure that the CEO’s time is dedicated to these priorities. Handle sensitive information relating to personnel, contracts and legal matters.
SHELTER AND CLINIC EXPERIENCE Collaborating with the Vice President of Animal Welfare, provide leadership and oversight to all shelter and clinic operations; generate new ideas to increase the adoption rate and community awareness of best practices in animal welfare. Keep abreast of all components of new animal welfare programs in order to continually strive to become a leader in the field. Offer advice and guidance on the interactions between the shelter and clinic so that the health of shelter animals is monitored on a daily basis. COMMUNICATIONS Represent the CEO at events and meetings, be able to serve as a spokesperson, when appropriate, so as to effectively represent the goals and mission of the SPCA of Texas to individuals, private foundations, government leaders, the media, sponsors and donors to attract the widest interest and support. Serve as a communications conduit to the CEO by facilitating decisions on critical issues and ensuring that staff, volunteer and Board needs are met. Communicate CEO’s decisions, priorities and directives in a timely manner to audiences. When needed, represent the CEO’s views and expectations at internal and external meetings.
THE PROFILE We seek a highly experienced leader and manager with demonstrated vision and passion for the humane and ethical treatment of animals. A successful track record of strong, innovative and inclusive leadership, which will facilitate open communication to harmonize staff, the Board and the other constituents with whom he/she will interface, is sought. Honed conflict resolution management and negotiation skills and ability to solve complex problems are required. The ideal candidate will bring extensive and innovative operations experience from a humane society or animal control facility. The person we seek should demonstrate a balance between creative thinking and management acumen as well as the ability to assess and maintain policies and procedures for moving an organization to a new level of excellence. Strong project management and analytical skills are needed. Qualified candidates will have exceptional interpersonal skills and will be able to relate to all constituencies. This individual has demonstrated success in building and sustaining coalitions toward the achievement of goals. The successful candidate will have an understanding of development activities, including securing major and planned gifts from individual donors, foundations and corporations.
Knowledge of business principles applied to a nonprofit enterprise, including a background of good budget management, is necessary. We seek an exceptional communicator who can demonstrate a successful background in external relations, including experience speaking with the media in a variety of situations. This person will welcome and respect the multiple perspectives and groups that demonstrate an active interest in animal welfare. An ability to work with internal and external stakeholders and quickly gain credibility is essential. Personnel management skills that include an ability to work collaboratively, listen, provide feedback, build morale, delegate, “roll up one’s sleeves” and make decisions are
essential. Maturity, diplomacy and excellent interpersonal skills are qualities that we seek. The successful candidates will be comfortable with ambiguity and will be agile and adjust to frequently changing demands. Demonstrated leadership ability, including coaching team building and performance management needed. The candidate should be motivated by the best interests of the organization and will bring high emotional intelligence to effectively continue the organization’s transition to a highly effective operation. Demonstrated success managing change, planning, forecasting and determining courses of action are needed. Minimum of 10 years in animal welfare industry management including experience with program development, fiscal and human resource management, public relations, law enforcement, political advocacy, government and community relations, public policy marketing, fundraising and strategic planning. Experience as a former CEO/Executive Director in animal welfare industry is strongly desired. An undergraduate degree from a four-year college or university is required. Master’s Degree in nonprofit management, business administration, organizational development or human resources preferred. CAWA certification is helpful.
THE POSITION Reporting to the President & CEO, the Executive Vice President is responsible for ensuring that all complex, time-sensitive issues affecting the SPCA of Texas in the areas of animal welfare, development, human resources, volunteer management, and communications are managed effectively and efficiently. Further, the Executive Vice President will work closely with the President in contributing to risk management, short-long term goals and critical priorities, initiatives
and activities of the SPCA of Texas. The Executive Vice President will work collaboratively with his/her direct reports to provide direction, issue analysis, complex problem solving and program development in their respective areas. The position serves as the key advisor to represent the President & CEO and acts as point of contact between organization leadership and other stakeholders. The Executive Vice President partners
with the President and CEO to plan on future growth and coordinate strategic responses to emerging opportunities. The Executive Vice President will drive personnel management and culture for the organization. The direct reports for the Executive Vice President are the Senior Vice President of Development, The Vice President of Finance, the Vice President of Animal Welfare, the newly created position of Senior Director of People Talent, and the Vice President of Marketing and Communications.
HOW TO APPLY Applications and nominations are being received by Noetic Search. Please click here to submit a current resume and cover letter. For more information, visit www.noeticexsearch.com or www.spca.org. Noetic Search 150 N. Michigan Ave. Suite 2800, Chicago, IL 60601 (312) 863-8577 SPCA of TEXAS is an Equal Opportunity Employer