Following last month’s announcement that Carl Marrs, CIRI President and CEO, would step down in December after more than 30 years of service with the company and eight years as President and CEO, CIRI’s Board of Directors has begun a process aimed at ensuring a smooth and successful transition at the top.

Marrs’ decision, prompted in part by a stated desire to see an end to controversy among competing factions at the Board and shareholder level, was greeted with regret by CIRI Chairman Bill Prosser, who praised Marrs for his successful leadership of the company. “Under Carl’s leadership, CIRI enjoyed remarkable successes in both business and social areas. These achievements changed shareholders’ lives and will serve as lofty targets for our future and those of other Native corporations in the coming years,” Prosser remarked.

Prosser announced that the Board would embark immediately on an aggressive effort to identify a successor to Marrs, beginning with a company-wide solicitation among CIRI shareholders and descendants, seeking applications or nominations for the post. The Executive Committee of CIRI’s Board of Directors, the committee tasked with identifying and recommending candidates for consideration by the full board, has met on several occasions in August and September, and hopes to identify a successor President and CEO within 60 to 90 days.

For his part, Marrs expressed his desire to see a smooth transition to a new President and CEO and his commitment to doing what he could to assist the company in that process. He expressed a high degree of confidence in the management team the company has built over the years, noting: “I am very proud and fortunate to have had the honor to serve with such a dynamic and accomplished management team during my tenure as the CEO. CIRI has had an incredible team of managers that has done extremely well for the shareholders of CIRI, both from a for-profit and non-profit perspective.”

Both Marrs and Prosser affirmed their desire to see the company build upon its many successes in prior years and to accomplish the transition to a new President/CEO positively and with the least possible disruption to the company.