Tokumbo Shobowale serves as Chief Operating Officer at The New School. How do you navigate from Chief Operating Officer for the City of New York into higher education? By cultivating a network of experienced communicators inside and outside higher education. With his public sector experience, Shobowale has been exposed to the broader impact of higher education on his city and the value that institutions bring to a thriving economy. Today, he joins us to share his experience in adapting across se...
Dec 15, 2017•20 min•Season 4Ep. 7
Brett Sweet serves as Vice Chancellor for Finance and Chief Financial Officer for Vanderbilt University. He’s a former submariner and special projects officer with the National Security Agency, so you might understand why he refers to himself as “the accidental CFO.” This week on the show, Brett shares the winding road that led him from the military to higher ed. Brett’s experience in higher education has led him to some of his more interesting lessons. “There’s this view that if someone didn’t ...
Nov 30, 2017•33 min•Season 4Ep. 6
Joe Mazur serves as vice president of administration and finance at College of Central Florida. His path was clearly winding its way through corporate accounting when he found himself in higher education. His six month temporary stint has lead to 19 years and counting. What keeps him in the field? Quality of life and job satisfaction, says Mazur. Catering to a wide variety of demographics in their student population with a large rural draw, Mazur says their challenges and opportunities are plent...
Jul 31, 2017•25 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Gaye Manning has served Southern Arkansas University Tech for over 33 years. Today, as Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration, she’s faced with navigating the challenges of enrollment decline, significant budget cuts, and services reductions, and has managed to work with her team to do just that without cutting a single member of staff as a result. Today on the show, Manning shares her love of higher education, of the friendships she has cultivated on her leadership team and the proud le...
Jul 17, 2017•24 min•Season 4Ep. 4
Nicole Trufant serves as Vice President of Finance and Administration for University of New England. It’s one of the fastest growing schools in the country, recently opening three new colleges, growing 40% online presence, and a new extension campus in Tangiers, Morocco. “I have experienced every emotion… except for boredom,” she says. Unlike so many of our CBO guests, Trufant says she has education in her blood. She comes from a family of teachers. And her grandfather? He served as custodian at...
Jul 03, 2017•21 min
Central Methodist University CBO Julee Sherman has seen it all. Since she’s started as a business manager in 1985, she’s helped to maintain a leadership role in student success measures, from building the first 2+2 program in collaboration with the state in the late 90s to innovative online initiatives today. And it’s those partnerships that make the place thrive. Strategy, HR, facilities and construction, Mrs. Sherman helps to drive the growth of CMU’s operations online, and off. Today on the s...
Jun 19, 2017•16 min
Barbie Jefferson serves as chief financial officer for Wofford College in South Carolina and celebrates the broad variety of challenges before here. From dining to facilities and construction management to, of course, ensuring the college is on a sound financial path, her team make the college a better place for students, faculty, and staff. Her biggest lesson, count on the expertise of mentors who have come before you to learn the ropes and responsibilities. Listen in this week to hear more abo...
Jun 05, 2017•19 min
Choi Halladay serves as Vice President for Administrative Services at Pierce College. He found his way into higher education first as a faculty member in economics and finance as a way to make up for his student experience with “too many bad teachers!” He started his career in higher ed as a faculty member, learning the ins and outs of the instructional side of the institution. His experience in the faculty ranks has directly influenced his perspective as CBO. “I take my role as CBO as someone w...
May 01, 2017•23 min
As it turns out, fortuitous accidents can kickstart incredibly rewarding careers. From her work in public service, University of Maryland Baltimore County Vice President for Finance and Administration Lynne Schaefer picked her field of study out of a hat. On the show today, Schaefer shares the story of her discovery of higher education and the rewards that have come with it personally and professionally. Her most significant key learnings today are all around the people. Building trust in her te...
Apr 24, 2017•22 min
Hospitality and higher education have a striking degree of similarity says Lynn Valenter, Vice Chancellor of Finance and Operations as Washington State University Vancouver. From facilities to customer service to security and police, Valenter brings experience from her first career in hospitality services to her role as CBO every day. Valenter shares her focus on public-private and public-public partnerships as a key strategy for supporting growth for the institution. Her advice for new CBOs com...
Mar 17, 2017•20 min
Hezekiah “Heze” Simmons serves as CFO and Vice President for Administrative Services for Monroe Community College in Rochester, New York. Before serving as CBO, he would have been as surprised as anyone on being asked to lead the charge to build a new college campus. But Simmons is all about stretch goals, and that very college campus is on schedule and under budget, targeting a September opening. This week on CBO Speaks, Simmons shares his recipe for success as a CBO. His is a story of alliance...
Mar 03, 2017•22 min
For Dawn Rhodes, shared governance made for a big transition as she moved from the private sector into higher education. “That first time you go through that process and try to get a decision made, you’re asking yourself, why is this taking so long?” But the value of the shared governance model, the balance and transparency offer key benefits in her role as chief business and finance officer and vice president for administration and finance for University of Maryland, Baltimore. As CBO, investin...
Feb 17, 2017•21 min
After 23 years at University of Redlands, CBO Phil Doolittle was ready for something new. He found it in Brandman University and their target population, adult learners. Today, he serves Brandman as executive vice chancellor of finance and administration and chief financial officer. We’ve created an environment were innovations are accepted and embraced by all the constituents including faculty,” says Doolittle. “What was most successful about this is the way the organization restructured in ord...
Feb 03, 2017•22 min
Craig Woody serves as vice chancellor for finance and business at the University of Denver, and in his over-30-year tenure at the institution, he’s seen a lot of change. “Half our footprint is new in the last 20 years,” he says. With new infrastructure, comes new leadership, new strategic plans, and a shifting board. Woody celebrates his place in an organization that has learned to work together, to celebrate strengths of the broader team. “The role of the CBO is more about understanding the fin...
Jan 20, 2017•21 min
In her role as vice president for administration and finance at Presbyterian College, Susan Maddux practices both the skill, and the art of the CBO. “When I first entered the profession it was much more about crunching the numbers and giving presentations to the board of trustees and making sure the budget got balanced, and now it is much more relationship driven,” she says. “When I first started, it was much more black and white than it is today.” This week on CBO Speaks, Maddux shares her jour...
Dec 09, 2016•19 min
Michael Mayher came to Lakeland Community College by way of big accounting. After weathering the whims of mergers and downsizing, he networked his way into business services and fell for it completely. Fifteen years later, he serves as executive vice president for administrative services and treasurer, and loves the CBO job today every bit as much as the day he started. “I love being a CBO. I mean, I’m serious,” he says. “I love challenges and this job is all about challenges.” His biggest surpr...
Nov 28, 2016•16 min
For Mike Gower, the world of public accounting gave him key insights and new perspectives when approaching financial challenges of his higher ed projects. It is that broad horizon that led him into the role of executive vice president for finance and administration and treasurer for Rutgers University. Gower faces change, but says driving change across sometimes competing cultures and systems can be much harder than we anticipate. “As much as we want to bring best practices to people, everyone h...
Nov 11, 2016•25 min
Gerald Whittington can thank Richard Nixon for his career. It was 1968, and Whittington was a freshman. Amidst campus protests to the Vietnam War, he received a letter that, perhaps for the first time, connected national politics, fiscal policy, and education, directly to his personal trajectory. This is how our conversation begins today, but his journey to senior vice president for business, finance and technology at Elon University gets even more interesting from there. Whittington builds a ca...
Oct 28, 2016•24 min
Joanne Yestramski hasn’t always been in higher ed, and it’s that long road away from the field that led her back to her role at her alma mater, vice chancellor of finance and operations at U. Mass Lowell. “I couldn’t believe my fortune,” she says, “to be able to come back and serve my alma mater in this very special time in the institution’s success story.” For Yestramski, the decision to transition out of the private sector hinged on the mission. “There’s much more of a short term planning cycl...
Oct 14, 2016•22 min
CBO Barbara Larson took a winding road into finance administration. She landed in her executive vice president for finance and administrative services at Johnson County Community College through environmental economics and solar manufacturing. But the allure of the campus was too great to resist, and within a few years, she brought the breadth of her skills to the community college. “I’ve learned to ask questions when I don’t know, and I hope I’m a good listener,” Larson says. “I work hard to un...
Sep 30, 2016•24 min
Randy Gentzler serves as vice president for finance and administration at Loyola University Maryland today, but higher education has never let him stray too far. After a career in higher ed finance starting on the accounting track straight out of college, he counts the variety of roles in higher education and strong mentor relationships as the keys to his success as a CBO. As a mentor himself today, Gentzler notes what he’s looking for in a mentee. “I’m looking for a broad thinker, technically c...
Sep 16, 2016•22 min
Brett Dalton serves as vice president for finance and operations today, but it’s been a long road to the role. He started in economics at the institution as a graduate student. His connections at the school opened his eyes to the value of higher education. “I realized that higher education provided the things that interested and motivated me about how higher education can transform individual lives, transform communities and societies in a positive way,” says Dalton. “There aren’t a lot of indus...
Jun 30, 2016•25 min
Lynn Coleman is the vice president of administration and finance for Howard Community College, having served the school since 1986. Today, she is responsible for building, safeguarding, and guiding the college’s physical, financial, and human infrastructure. Under her leadership, the administration and finance division has helped Howard become the fastest growing community college in Maryland. "One of the things that I learned early on is that you had to hire good people to work under you,” says...
Jun 16, 2016•23 min
Vice President for Finance and Administration for Davidson College Ed Kania landed in higher ed thanks to the luck of the economic downturn. Knowing nothing of higher education offered him the benefit of a new view, and awareness of the state of infrastructure of his new institution along with the opportunities for growth and improvement therein. “People skills were extremely important. My department had poor relationships across the entire campus. At the same time, people made the assumption th...
Jun 02, 2016•26 min
Middlesex County College Vice President of Finance and Administration Sue Perkins was one of only two women Vice Presidents in community colleges when she took on the role. Things have changed today, thanks to hard work, persistence, and deep collaboration with a growing network of higher education professionals. "When I look back on my career path, I realize now how important it was to talk to people, to get involved in other areas before they became my responsibility," says Perkins. She volunt...
May 19, 2016•23 min
CBO Arch Asawa’s first job in education happened to be one of many firsts. As vice president of finance at Soka University, he joined the administrative team in building the liberal arts institution from scratch. As a start-up, the challenges he faced came plenty, and fast, from building staff, vetting and hiring faculty, and crafting programs to create a best in class education experience. “I knew nothing about higher education,” says Asawa. After attending his first association meeting, “I kne...
May 05, 2016•22 min
CBO Connie Kanter knows something about rapid innovation. In fact, her role at Seattle U. is her first role in education after a career in a high tech start-up. “You have to roll your shirt sleeves up and everybody does everything. You’re living in a constrained environment.” That the rules of finance in a start-up are so similar to the rules of finance in higher education are where the parallels begin. Kanter shares her insights into working as a CBO with an inclination toward curiosity, to ask...
Apr 21, 2016•26 min
“The secret of being a great financial officer is being able to talk to anyone about anything ,” says today’s guest. And with over 40 years tenure at Spelman College, VP of Business and Financial Affairs, Robert “Danny” Flanigan, knows a thing or two about talking finance to a wide range of interests. Flanigan shares his insights on the evolution of the CBO role. In the old days, financial officers “were accountants. They didn’t engage with the community or students.” But the role has changed. T...
Apr 07, 2016•22 min
Cal Poly Senior Vice President for Administration and Finance Cindy Villa is new to the university but not to the role. Her recent transition to CalPoly after 28 years at another institution affords her a unique perspective on administrative leadership and change. “Our role over the years has evolved. A CBO now has to be far more entrepreneurial — you have to be creative and willing to take risks.” This week on CBO Speaks, Villa highlights the change in the role of the CBO, the industry, and how...
Mar 24, 2016•20 min
Prairie View A&M Senior Vice President of Business Affairs Corey Bradford assumed he was on track for a career in corporate America, but the reward of working in higher education was too great to deny. Bradford’s first professional role was in the budget office, in fact, and he worked into the CBO role from there. From continuing education to on-the-job experience in campus crisis management, Bradford shares his insights in growing into finance leadership, campus growth, and deep mission-lev...
Mar 10, 2016•19 min
