Richard Mueller is head of school for Hong Kong International School. He previously served as head of school and later president of Northfield Mount Hermon School, a college preparatory boarding school in Northfield, Mass. Prior to his career in education, Mueller was a career diplomat, serving 32 years with the U.S. Department of State. Key assignments included serving as the United States Consul General in Hong Kong, service at the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing and Saigon and working on assignment for Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger, George Schultz and James Baker. Mueller can be reached at rmueller@hkis.edu.hk.

What changes do you foresee for independent schools during the next five years?
The financial/economic tsunami is likely to impact schools directly for at least several years, with even longer lasting consequences as we are forced to make hard choices. These will revolve around a continued drive for increased efficiency, fewer "nice-to-haves," reductions in some programs, and increased use of information technologies and distance learning. Raising funds will be critical. While I believe Americans will try to be as generous as possible, capacity is likely to be limited.

The next several years should be devoted to as much intense "friend-raising" as possible. This is the time to let your friends and supporters know you appreciate them.

Besides the economy, what do you think is the most pressing problem facing advancement professionals today?
How to be really good friend-raisers during trying times and how to empathetically stay in touch with your friends who may be experiencing difficulties.

Talk about the similarities and differences of working for an independent school in the United States versus one in Hong Kong.
There are many similarities: capable students, high-expectation parents, a wide range of co-curricular programs, holistic education, service learning and smaller class sizes.

Some differences are that international schools have many more "third-culture kids," far more diverse student bodies, issues around language abilities, language "cliques," often little experience with advancement issues and those who question the need for an annual fund or other giving. The concept of an annual fund (ours is increasingly robust) providing resources for programs over and above what tuition provides is relatively unknown or alien to many non-Americans.

How have your skills as a diplomat with the U.S. Department of State helped you in your role as head of school?
Diplomats are trained to be good, sensitive observers and learners about whatever country or culture they are working in. It's a critical skill, and it is a key to success as a head of school. Communications skills are also critical-written and oral. HKIS has some 2,650 students and 2,000 sets of parents, plus 500 employees and many HK constituents. Understanding each group, and the differences within each, helps to create policies and programs that respond to stakeholder needs, and it builds support for school directions.

Also, living and working in Asia for more than four decades and learning Chinese and Vietnamese have given me an understanding of the context in which we live. To be successful, faculty and staff must develop global mindedness and learn about the country, culture, history and language of the place they live. International teachers are more effective if they engage in real interaction with local people, live outside a school compound or go out of their way to learn more about the country's culture and history. They are thus better able to model for students the importance of global-mindedness and cross-cultural competence.

What do you like best about your job?
Simple: the students!

What led you to work in the independent school sector?
Serendipity.

Bill Rhodes, senior vice chairman of Citigroup, and I met when I was American Consul General in Hong Kong in 1993. Later, since he was chair of the board of Northfield Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts, he encouraged me to apply for head of school. I was truly taken aback; the idea had never crossed my mind. I was slated for a good onward assignment in the Foreign Service, so I told him I was a diplomat and not a career educator. He assured me that diplomacy would go a long way in the educational world!

Also, NMH wanted someone who had experience internationally. I surprised myself by throwing my hat in the ring, but in turn was surprised (and delighted) when I was offered the position after an intense search process. I retired early after 32 years in the Foreign Service. My wife Claire and I spent seven years at NMH. We enjoyed our time there and made many good friends in the faculty, staff and students.

One accomplishment was reviewing our unique educational program and how we wanted to deliver it, and then helping to lead the board and school to decide on a major change in direction-to reduce the size of the school and locate it on one campus.

Bill Rhodes was right: diplomacy and diplomatic skills do go a long way in education!

Although I had not planned to lead another school after retiring from NMH, it turned out HKIS was looking for a new head of school that same year. I was intrigued because our sons went to HKIS, I was on the board twice (1980s and 1990s), was chair of the board from 1997-98, strongly supported the type of education we offer here, and felt strong connections with Hong Kong and Hong Kong people. So, again, I threw my hat in the ring, and here I am, still using my diplomatic skills to the max!

Dragon Tales is your school's alumni magazine. Has it proven to be a useful way to connect with alumni?
For the last several years, we've had an intense effort to connect and re-connect with our alumni. They are scattered around the world. Most have had relatively little contact with the school. A priority has been to do a better job, while students are here, inculcating the idea of staying in touch and giving back. Dragon Tales is one communications vehicle for doing so, connecting alums with each other and with HKIS. A focus for the magazine is stories about our alumni. It has been effective; we will probably move to more online distribution.

Are you using social media tools? If so, what has been their impact?
We're just getting into them, starting with Facebook. Our Web site has been fully re-designed and will be a major way to connect with alumni, friends and parents. A good number of our graduating classes have started their own pages on social networking sites.

How often do you interact with your senior advancement staff-those in fundraising, alumni relations, communications and marketing?
There is regular interaction both with the director of the office and, since we are in adjoining offices, with individual staff members. The director attends administrative team meetings depending on focus and topics.

As head of school, why are you supportive of Hong Kong International School's involvement with CASE?
Professional development for staff is critical, and CASE has the widest range of information, publications, classes, workshops, and other products and services to support our advancement staff. The CASE conference in Hong Kong last year was an excellent gathering of like-minded professionals.

We were very pleased that most of our development and advancement staff could attend many conference sessions. And, we hosted a one-day seminar for the schools sector at HKIS.

This article is from the April 2009 issue of BriefCASE.
Please share your questions and comments with Pam Russell via e-mail at russell@case.org or by telephone at +1-202-478-5680.