In addition to a location, the FEI needed a director. Chairman Macy was able to convince Frank Sherwood, who was Dean and teaching at the University of Southern California School of Public Administration, to come to Charlottesville as the first director of the Federal Executive Institute. Macy chose Sherwood to be the FEI's first director because he wanted someone "with academic credentials who understands something about adult learning and adult education, who had a substance of understanding about problems of the Federal executive gained through academic research and study, someone with academic status and thus able to attract staff and deal with the University of Virginia." He wanted someone who could turn his vision of a university model within the federal government into a reality. Macy and Sherwood worked exceptionally together and the two soon formed a partnership that shaped the foundational years of FEI. Both agreed that FEI should have an Advisory Board. The FEI Advisory Board provided FEI with supporters placed throughout the government who knew about FEI's mission and the unusual way it operated.