The ACC launched its search for a new commissioner Thursday by hiring Turnkey Search and Ventura Partners. Both are well-known in college circles for working on some of the biggest searches in the space, including coaches and ADs. Len Perna and Gene DeFilippo lead Turnkey's college search business, which has placed ADs at Michigan, Alabama and USC. Ventura's sports practice under Chad Chatlos and Katy Young Staudt supported coaching searches at Wake Forest (men's basketball) and Texas (women's basketball), as well as football searches at Rutgers and Ole Miss in the last year. It is unusual for a conference to hire two search firms -- although it is supposedly more common for major hires in the business world. Turnkey and Ventura submitted their proposal together. That Jed Hughes from Korn Ferry did not get the search might be considered something of an upset. He led commissioner searches for the most recent hires at the Big Ten, SEC and Pac-12.
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