The Smithsonian has retained Boston-based executive search firm Isaacson, Miller to conduct the search for a new Secretary. The firm will report directly to the Board of Regents' search committee, chaired by Alan G. Spoon, managing-general partner of Polaris Venture Partners and former president of The Washington Post Company.

The search committee began work this spring following the March 24 resignation of Lawrence M. Small, who had served as Secretary since January 2000. Cristián Samper, most recently director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, is serving as Acting Secretary. The search committee plans to conclude its work and name a new Secretary early next year.

The appointee will be the 12th Secretary of the Institution, which was established by an Act of Congress in 1846 for the "increase and diffusion of knowledge." The Secretary oversees a complex of 19 museums, nine research centers and the National Zoo, and manages a staff of more than 6,000 and an annual budget (federal and nonfederal funds) of $919 million.

The Regents' Search Committee is composed of Chairman Spoon and the following members:

• Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), Regent
• L. Hardwick "Hacker" Caldwell, chair of the Smithsonian's National Board and ex-officio of the Board of Regents, and president of TSWII Management Company
• Anne d'Harnoncourt, Regent, the George D.Widener director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Regent
• Walter E. Massey, physicist and president of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Regent (2001-March 2007) (re-appointment to the board is pending)
• Jeffrey Minear, administrative assistant to Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts Jr., who is chancellor of the Smithsonian
• Roger W. Sant, Regent, co-founder of AES Corp. and chairman emeritus of its board, and chairman of the board of The Summit Foundation in Washington, D.C.
• Irwin Shapiro, senior scientist and former director of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
• W. Richard West Jr., founding director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian