University of the Pacific
University of the Pacific is a nationally ranked comprehensive university and California’s first chartered institution of higher learning. Established in 1851, Pacific has nearly 6,300 students and 10 schools and colleges across three campuses in northern California.
The majority of students and the NCAA Division 1 athletics program are based on the Stockton Campus, often cited as one of the nation’s most beautiful college campuses. The Sacramento Campus in California’s state capital is home to the McGeorge School of Law, the new School of Health Sciences and an array of graduate programs while the renowned Dugoni School of Dentistry is based on the downtown San Francisco Campus.
Pacific takes pride in providing the highly personalized and caring educational, social and residential environments of a small college combined with the choices and opportunities of a major comprehensive university.
The Opportunity
The Chief Financial Officer will report directly to the President with direct oversight of Budget, Treasury and Investments, Payroll, Accounts Payable, Financial Reporting, Procurement, Sponsored Programs Accounting, Student Business Services and E-Commerce for the university. As cornerstone to a reorganized leadership structure designed to streamline and improve strategic and operational excellence, the university is focusing the CFO role on critical areas of finance and strategy and the Chief Operating Officer (COO) role on critical areas of operations and strategy to significantly accelerate progress in these respective areas. Among primary first-year goals of the new CFO will be an analysis and automation of Pacific’s back-end systems and financial reporting capabilities, working closely with the Vice President for Technology/CIO, as well as developing detailed and continuous one-year, three-year and five-year financial projection scenarios, working closely with the Vice President for Enrollment.
The new CFO will join a dynamic leadership team, led by President Christopher Callahan and Provost Maria Pallavicini and that will include the current Vice President for Business and Finance, Ken Mullen, who will take on the role of Chief Operating Officer at Pacific.
Responsibilities
Reporting directly to the President, the Chief Financial Officer will act as a strategic advisor and work closely with the Provost, Chief Operating Officer, Cabinet and Board of Regents to advance the university’s mission, vision and values.
The CFO will be responsible for the university’s financial operations and charged with partnering with the President, Provost, and other members of the leadership team to align Pacific’s resources and strategic goals. The CFO serves as an institutional catalyst, stimulating sound financial management practices across the organization that support both change and the achievement of the strategic and financial objectives of the university. As an institutional leader, the CFO will oversee efficiencies and proper disciplines across the three campuses to assure best practices. The CFO also will serve as a role model for how to engage a variety of individuals with different perspectives to develop creative solutions to constrained resources.
Qualifications
Minimum
- A bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting, business or a related field is required. An advanced degree in a relevant field is highly desirable.
- Minimum 8 years of increasingly responsible financial leadership experience, preferably in higher education.
Preferred
- Experience as a financial and collaborative leader who can navigate effectively across the university.
- Ability to strategically analyze financial data and systems for decision-making.
- Ability to develop and manage relationships with diverse partners within and outside the university community.
- Experience in designing optimal organizational structures for finance teams and financial process re-engineering.
- Ability to manage both big picture and operational details.
- Comfort with delegating day-to-day management and decision-making to others, and developing the leadership skills of those managers.
- Ability to build, motivate and inspire the financial team.
- Ability to build trust and develop strong working relationships.
- Ability to articulate a vision effectively to all constituencies.
- Ability to crystallize complex financial information.
- Experience with strategic planning and multi-year financial planning, with conceptual and strategic thinking.
- Ability to engage in constant financial strategic analysis.
- Expertise in comprehensive, multi-year, capital and operating budget development and implementation.
- Knowledge of a wide variety of financing techniques, financial analysis, endowment and debt management.
- Ability to direct the funding and capital structure activities and execute all capital market transactions.
- Ability to implement and manage strong communication programs with financial institutions, rating agencies and bondholders.
Prospectus
Application and Nomination Process
University of the Pacific has retained Korn Ferry, a national executive recruiting firm, to assist with this search. All nominations, inquiries, and application materials should be submitted in confidence to Korn Ferry. Korn Ferry will begin reviewing applications immediately and continue to accept applications and nominations until the position is filled. Please direct all applications, nominations and inquiries for the position to the search firm.
AA/EEO Statement
University of the Pacific is an affirmative action and equal opportunity employer dedicated to workforce diversity. In compliance with applicable law and its own policy, Pacific is committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse faculty and staff and does not discriminate in its hiring of faculty and staff, or in the provision of its employment benefits to its faculty and staff on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, genetic information, sex/gender, marital status, military and veteran status, sexual orientation, medical condition, pregnancy, gender identity, gender expression, or mental or physical disability. The university will provide reasonable accommodations to individuals with a disability.
