Vice President for Finance and Administration

Vice President for Finance and Administration 

OLIN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

NEEDHAM, MA

Olin College of Engineering (Olin), an innovator in undergraduate engineering education, seeks a senior finance and administration leader to help navigate the College’s ambitious reinvention. The incoming vice president for finance and administration (VPFA) will join Olin at a propitious moment in the College’s history, with the recent appointment of its second-ever president, Dr. Gilda A. Barabino. President Barabino promotes a deliberately developmental institutional culture, in which every member of the community is a learner, an educator, and a meaningful contributor to building and sustaining the College. The newly reconceived position of VPFA will play a key role in engaging and educating the community in pursuit of creative ideas to chart a financially sustainable future at a small, highly consensus-driven organization. 

Founded in 1997, Olin’s existence centers around radically changing engineering education, with the goal of fueling technical innovation to solve the world’s complex, future challenges. This mission has engendered a commitment to nimbleness, experimentation, and continual self-reflection. Looking to the future, Olin aspires to build a more inclusive community in which all members are empowered and expected to contribute to the college’s mission, reducing inequity both within and through engineering education. The student body, with an overall enrollment of about 350 and approximately 86 students per class year, is gender-balanced and has one of the highest graduation rates in the country, at 91% over six years, with 42% of students self-identifying as domestic students of color.

The incoming VPFA will report directly to President Barabino, and will partner with the board of trustees, faculty, staff, and other senior officers – particularly the provost – to think creatively about financial and administrative systems and structures in support of Olin’s academic mission and strategic goals. The VPFA will oversee the areas of finance; administrative services & innovation (including human resources, facilities, and public safety); and information technology (IT). Olin seeks a leader who will collaborate on strategic planning and vision-setting; develop processes and procedures that engage the entire Olin community; devise an improved and inclusive budgetary process in partnership with the provost; serve on an equity-minded senior leadership team; evaluate and implement a new, streamlined organizational structure; develop creative pathways for revenue generation; oversee and advance IT operations; prioritize and implement plans for campus renewal; and manage and evaluate external functions and services. The successful candidate will possess technical expertise and broad managerial experience, combined with a collegial, hands-on style that generates trust and fosters collaboration at a small institution. 

TO APPLY

Olin College of Engineering has engaged Isaacson, Miller, a national executive search firm, to assist in identifying and reviewing candidates for this position. Inquiries, applications, and nominations may be sent electronically and in confidence to:

Greg Esposito, Partner

Ponneh Varho, Partner

Berkley Burke, Senior Associate

Isaacson, Miller

http://www.imsearch.com/8000

Olin College of Engineering is an equal opportunity employer.