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Job Description
, a distinguished residential liberal arts college located in Vermont, is conducting a national search for a Vice President for Finance and Administration. The Vice President will report to the President, Laura Walker, and will serve as a critical thought-partner and strategist to the President. The Vice President will serve on the President’s Cabinet, the senior management team for the College, and support the finance, audit and risk, investment, and campus planning committees of the board of trustees.
The VPFA is responsible for providing leadership and effectively managing the Collegexe2x80x99s financial, human, technology, and physical resources and has the following direct reports: controller, vice president for facilities management and planning, the director for human resources, the project manager, and the associate vice president of technology/chief information officer. The portfolio also includes conference services and dining services. The VP will be a thought partner with the president in developing a new model for financial equilibrium for a small liberal arts college. As a senior officer of the College, the vice president helps to establish the overall direction of the College in conjunction with fellow members of the senior team. The new vice president will work with faculty on the newly formed faculty finance and budget advisory committees. In addition to being a finance expert and an outstanding administrator, the new VP must have a passion for Bennington, demonstrate empathy and be an outstanding communicator.
CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
Attain a Healthy Financial Equilibrium
Develop a New Budget Process and Budget Accountability
Gain Trust and Communicate Effectively with the Campus about Financial Issues
Maintain Efficient, Cost-Effective Operation of the College
Provide Leadership to the Finance and Administration Division
QUALITIES AND QUALIFICATIONS
The next Vice President for Finance and Administration will resonate to Benningtonxe2x80x99s unique mission and education and embrace its commitment to equity, inclusion, and diversity. The VP will be a collaborative, confident, innovative, entrepreneurial, energetic, and self-assured financial leader with a demonstrated commitment to collegiality and transparency. The person will be an exceptional financial strategist with superior analytical, communication, and interpersonal skills. The VP will be culturally and contextually astute with an appreciation of aesthetics and a knowledge of the higher education landscape and a broad portfolio of leadership accomplishments in progressively more senior management roles, preferably in higher education.
Experience must include demonstrated expertise in financial planning and operations, budgeting and budget modeling. Experience in facilities and facilities planning, debt financing, gift and endowment management, tuition pricing and discounting, technology and human resources is desirable. The VP should be pragmatic and wise and be known as a trusted leader. The new vice president will be prudent but willing to take measured risks.
The Vice President must be a team player who enjoys working in partnership and in a collegial manner with the entire senior management team and with the faculty and staff. The VP needs a strong appreciation for academic quality across the institution and should be an active partner with the academic side of the College to develop funding and administrative solutions to support its academic mission.
The Vice President must possess unquestioned integrity, intelligence, confidence, energy, sound judgment, creativity, decisiveness, fortitude, tact, and force of personality necessary to establish credibility to motivate people and to command respect both within and outside of the College. The VP must have outstanding communications skills, including the ability to present well to groups large and small, to tell stories, and the ability to listen actively and openly. The vice president must be comfortable operating transparently and must be able to gain the trust of all the Collegexe2x80x99s constituencies. In addition, the personal qualities of openness, accessibility, kindness, empathy, flexibility, and a sense of humor are very important in this position.
The next Vice President must have at least ten years of leadership accomplishments in progressively more senior financial management roles. It is highly desirable if at least some of this experience is at a college or university or other major non-profit. A bachelorxe2x80x99s degree is required and a CPA, MBA or other advanced degree is preferred. For more information on the position, please refer to the .
PROCEDURE FOR CANDIDACY
Nominations and applications are invited for this position. Review of applications will begin immediately, and candidate material received by April 21st will be assured full consideration although recruitment will continue until an appointment is announced. Applications (including a cover letter and a resume) must be . Lapovsky Consulting is assisting Bennington College in this search. For nominations, questions, or additional information, please contact:
Lucie Lapovsky
917-690-1958
Bennington College is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity.
All inquiries will be held in confidence.
