We provide dedicated and exclusive strategic advisory services to help empower higher education leaders in navigating complex challenges with clarity and confidence.
Our Approach
Customized higher education consulting to enhance institutional value by assisting executive leadership and governance.
Strategic Leadership Solutions for Colleges & Universities
With Wrighton Cannon Consulting, you gain not just advisors but partners committed to walking beside you through the complexities of higher education leadership.
Our approach will center upon your goals that may include one or more of the following:
Establishing and increasing confidence among your many constituencies — faculty, students, benefactors, staff, alumni, parents, industry research supporters, local leaders.
Increasing access and affordability.
Safeguarding institutional autonomy and academic freedom.
Advancing a pluralistic community across students, faculty and employees.
Articulating the true value of higher education to a discerning and often skeptical society.
Refining the vision and managerial capacity to secure the resources needed for major new academic initiatives and the facilities to sustain them.
Honoring your institution’s traditions and faculty governance, while providing the most nimble and effective leadership of complex institutions.
Guiding Priorities for Lasting Institutional Success
Every university has a distinct story, and your leadership vision is just as unique.
At Wrighton Cannon Consulting, we devote our full focus to one institution at a time, ensuring your priorities receive undivided attention. We partner with you to turn vision into reality, co-designing strategies that honor your school’s traditions while delivering practical, actionable solutions.
We recognize that leading a college or university today requires more than vision. It requires balancing tradition with transformation, navigating the expectations of diverse stakeholders, and steering through societal skepticism while holding firm to the core values of higher education.
Our work begins with truly listening to you, and taking the time to learn from you what your faculty, students, benefactors and other stakeholders are thinking and feeling so that our strategies are rooted in what matters most to your institution. With this grounded knowledge, we co-design pathways that advance your mission and strengthen your long-term vitality.
Advising Higher Education Leaders
Our clients include aspiring and established university presidents, board chairs, provosts, and other senior leaders who seek expert counsel customized to their institution’s needs.
Whether facing transformational changes, transition management, conflict on campus, financial distress or governance complexities, our consulting is designed for leaders dedicated to strengthening their institution’s mission and impact in an increasingly complex and competitive environment.
Core Focus Areas
Executive Leadership & Governance Enhancement
We guide university and college presidents and board leaders through complex governance and management challenges with personalized, confidential advisory services.
Institutional Strategy Refinement
We help refine institutional strategies to enhance research programs, increase access and affordability, improve relationships with faculty governance, communicate more effectively with stakeholders, and boost and honor the pluralism of your organization’s community.
Organizational Resilience & Resource Alignment
We can help you develop resilient organizational capacity by aligning resources, stakeholder confidence, and mission-driven management and governance for sustainable success.
Executive Transition Support
We support new executive transitions to ensure strong, effective leadership continuity tailored to each institution’s unique culture and priorities.
Why University Leaders Choose Wrighton Cannon Consulting
Our value comes from experience. With more than five decades of leading institutions of higher education, our senior advisors combine practical solutions with deep sector knowledge. Partner with us to receive the guidance to help you lead decisively, navigate complex challenges, and accelerate your success as an academic executive.
We’ve been there and we can help.
Leverage our collective 50 years of higher education C-suite experience to elevate your leadership and transform your institution’s future.
Partner with us for personalized, hands-on strategic guidance designed exclusively for your unique challenges and goals. Contact Wrighton Cannon Consulting today to get started on a tailored path to lasting success and impact.