About Us

Next Generation’s Higher Education Executive Search Services and Management Consulting Services are led by Mary Beth Baker and Phil Goldstein. Read below to learn more about their background, values and commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.

Phil and Mary Beth have worked with hundreds of higher learning organizations across the country to help them meet their technology-related goals. Their work with higher education began at Coopers & Lybrand, consulting on technology, process improvement, and strategy for colleges, universities, and other non-profit organizations. After C&L merged with PriceWaterhouse, both Phil and Mary Beth continued as partners directing the higher education consulting division. Phil and Mary Beth have both served as research fellows at the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, where they led numerous IT-related research studies. They have extensive experience designing and strengthening IT strategy, improving organizational effectiveness, and recruiting senior technology leaders. Mary Beth brings in-depth experience designing IT governance structures and processes and working with academic medical centers. Phil has additional expertise in selecting, planning, and implementing enterprise administrative software.

Our Values

Honest, Candid, and Authentic.

Meaningful relationships and developing a true partnership are at the heart of our executive search and management consulting work. We approach all conversations in a professional, and respectful manner.

Outcomes Focused.

We understand that the process by which a decision is made can matter as much as the decision itself. We work with you to structure meaningful organization and operational change that is inclusive of diverse perspectives and experiences.

Trustworthy and Reliable.

You can count on us to do whatever it takes to help you navigate difficult situations and ensure your decisions have a positive and lasting impact on your organization.

Flexible, Collaborative.

We actively listen to your unique needs and partner with you to design the right project, strategy, or executive search process.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Diversity, equity, and inclusion matter because a strong organization is a diverse one. Our search and consulting collaborations have greater impact when they are inclusive of the diverse perspectives of race, gender, ethnicity, and experience. We help the leaders we advise to design searches and strategies that are inclusive of the rich diversity of thought that define our clients.

Achieving results requires action as well as intention. Our firm is taking several concrete steps to live our values. We have formed a strategic alliance with the University of Southern California Race and Equity Center’s PRISM Network to improve our search process, promote positions to people of color, and develop thought leadership at the intersection of technology, race, and inclusion. Our search agreements include explicit metrics for the diversity of the candidate pool. We collaborate with our client’s internal experts or leverage our external advisors to ensure our processes are free of roadblocks to diversity and our search committees are aware of unconscious bias. Finally, we give a day of time each month and a percentage of our annual profits to causes that further the presence of women and under-represented minorities in technology.

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