Executive Search Services in Support of the Office of Financial Stability (OFS) Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)

Sources Sought Notice for Executive Search Services in Support of the Office of Financial Stability (OFS) Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) This is a sources sought notice. This announcement is for market research and preliminary planning purposes. No proposals are being requested or accepted in response to this notice. THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION FOR PROPOSALS AND NO CONTRACT WILL BE AWARDED AS A RESULT OF THIS NOTICE. No reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to this notice or any follow up information requests. The U.S. Department of Treasury, Office of Financial Stability (OFS) is responsible for the management and administration of the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) which was established under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (Act). The purpose of the Act is to provide the Secretary of the Treasury (Secretary) with the authorities and facilities to restore liquidity and stability to the financial system of the United States. In addition, the Secretary is directed to ensure that such authorities are used in a manner that protects home values, college funds, retirement accounts, and life savings; preserves homeownership and promotes jobs and economic growth; maximizes overall returns to the taxpayers of the United States; and provides public accountability for the exercise of such authority. By acquiring, managing, and orderly liquidating the troubled assets over time, the Treasury seeks to improve the capital positions of financial institutions, reduce risk premiums in the market, improve liquidity and credit extension in the financial system, increase investor confidence, and provide market participants with more price transparency. The portfolio mandate and specific investment strategies may change over time but will always be consistent with these policy goals. The operational goals of OFS are to: 1. Ensure the overall stability and liquidity of the financial system. 2. Prevent avoidable foreclosures and help preserve homeownership. 3. Protect taxpayer interests. 4. Promote transparency. OFS administers equity and debt securities purchased from financial institutions through the following TARP program that are in scope for this source sought notice: ? Capital Purchase Program (CPP) The U.S. Department of Treasury (Treasury) may have an upcoming requirement for use of the services of one or several executive search firms that would be capable of identifying a candidate or a qualified pool of candidates to serve on the Boards of Directors of several Qualified Financial Institutions (QFIs) in which Treasury has made prior investments. The open directorships may potentially be located in cities and towns across the 50 United States and Puerto Rico. Treasury is in particular interested in firms that would have an ability to identify qualified individuals to fill positions in small to medium tier sized banks (approximately $100million - $10billion in asset size) located across the country, and create a pool of qualified candidates from which Treasury can select potential board members as necessary. Treasury may in certain cases be seeking to identify specific, qualified individuals ahead of an actual opening, so that if an opening is created, that individual may be nominated in a timely manner. While Treasury may have the ability to appoint members to certain boards, compensation of said members will be paid by the QFI to the individual directly. The purpose of this sources sought notice is to gain knowledge of the interest, capabilities, and qualifications of prospective offerors in support of the financial service area described above. Treasury is particularly interested in understanding the capabilities and qualifications of interested small business concerns, including woman and minority owned small businesses, and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSB). Treasury's choice of solicitation vehicle and acquisition strategy will depend in part upon the responses to this notice of all firms, including small businesses. Interested vendors are requested to provide a written response to this notice which is limited to a maximum of 3 pages with a minimum font size of 10 point, one page covering all information necessary to address items 1 - 4 below, and two pages maximum to describe the capabilities of each search firm. The response should reference the following items: 1) The vendor's name, address, point of contact, phone number, and e-mail address; 2) The vendor's small business size status, including whether the vendor is a woman owned, minority owned, or SDVOSB firm; 3) A statement indicating if vendor is currently a GSA Schedule holder, and, if so, identification of GSA contract number and corresponding schedule identification number. 4) A statement as to whether the firm is interested in working as a prime contractor or a subcontractor; 5) A description of the search firm's capabilities and past experiences in placing members in both publically traded and privately held/managed financial institutions, specifically those of small to medium size as described above. Special attention should be directed to the search firm's ability to source qualified candidates with backgrounds in financial workouts, turnarounds or restructurings. 6) A description of the geographic scope of region(s) of the United States that the search firm is capable of providing search services for. 7) A general outline and listing of the billing or compensation scheme used by the search firm for its own reimbursement, to include any price break points based upon internal criteria such as the size of the QFI at which placement is being made or the geographic location of the open position. The North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 561312. The small business size standard, based upon the NAICS code, is $7,000,000. Treasury anticipates that any resulting solicitation will require offerors to provide information on the capabilities of their firms, key personnel, resources, past performance, and pricing. All firms will be required to propose an organizational conflicts of interest (OCI) mitigation plan. Treasury expects to award contracts to the firm or combination of firms which represent the best value to the Government. Interested firms must respond to this sources sought notice no later than 2:00 P.M. ET on April 22, 2010. Responses and information in response to this notice must be sent via e-mail to OFSESS@do.treas.gov. Telephone inquiries shall be considered non-responsive. Treasury reserves the right to review submissions after the deadline for the purposes of further scope definition. Place of Performance: Across the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico