SEARCH FOR THE CONTROLLER. SMITH COLLEGE Northampton, Massachusetts

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SEARCH FOR THE CONTROLLER SMITH COLLEGE Northampton, Massachusetts THE SEARCH Smith College, one of the largest independent women s colleges in the country, seeks a collaborative, results-driven

1 SEARCH FOR THE CONTROLLER SMITH COLLEGE Northampton, Massachusetts THE SEARCH Smith College, one of the largest independent women s colleges in the country, seeks a collaborative, results-driven leader to serve as its next controller. The controller is a key member of the college s financial leadership team and will be responsible for providing college-wide strategic oversight of financial accounting and operations, external reporting, compliance and risk management. The controller will work closely with senior administrators, faculty, staff, students, and the Board of Trustees to ensure a strong and efficient financial control environment that supports the educational mission of the college. The controller will join Smith at a propitious moment in its history. The college recently completed a new strategic plan that has been enthusiastically embraced by the Board of Trustees and the Smith community. A centerpiece of the plan is the renovation of the historic Neilson Library led by the team of Maya Lin Studios and Shepley Bulfinch architects. The college also recently announced the successful completion of the largest capital campaign in its history, Women for the World: The Campaign for Smith. The controller will play a critical role in advancing the college s administrative capabilities and enhancing Smith s position as an institution of academic excellence and international renown. Founded in 1871 as a private college with a mission to provide women with an excellent liberal arts education, Smith is widely considered to be one of the top liberal arts institutions in the country and one of the nation s best managed colleges. Primarily an undergraduate residential college, Smith stands alone in many ways. With an endowment of $1.7 billion, it has the substantial resources of a university, yet is small enough to be an intimate community. Among Smith s many distinctions are being the first women s college with an engineering program, producing high numbers of Fulbright Fellows, and serving as a notable leader in education access.

2 Page 2 of 8 The controller reports directly to the vice president for finance and administration (VPFA) and is the college s principal accounting officer. This individual will lead an office of thirteen employees responsible for financial and endowment accounting, financial reporting, tax management, procurement and accounts payable, and payroll processing. The controller is responsible for ensuring accurate, efficient processing of financial transactions, maintaining sound accounting policies and practices, and balancing effective compliance with excellent customer service. The successful candidate will possess deep accounting expertise and broad managerial experience combined with a collegial style that engenders trust and fosters collaboration. A bachelor s degree and a CPA certification are required. An MBA or other advanced degree in accounting, finance, business, or a related field is preferred. Candidates must have a minimum of 10 years of experience as an accounting professional, including senior management experience in higher education. Equivalent experience at a public accounting firm with a higher education client base may be considered. The college has named a search committee which will be assisted by the executive search firm Isaacson, Miller. Inquiries, nominations, and applications, which will remain confidential, should be directed to the search firm as indicated at the end of this document. SMITH COLLEGE Smith College began more than 140 years ago in the mind and conscience of a New England woman. In her will, Sophia Smith expressed her vision of a liberal arts college for women equal to the best available to men, one that would make it possible to develop as fully as may be the powers of womanhood. In keeping with Sophia Smith s intent, the college aims to produce graduates distinguished by their intellectual capabilities, their capacity for leadership, their ethical values, and their readiness to contribute to the betterment of the world. Today, Smith is among the largest liberal arts colleges for women in the country and offers a broad curriculum of more than 1,000 courses in some 50 areas of study. Its programs in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences have expanded to respond to the intellectual needs of today s students, offering study in computer science, engineering, women s studies, environmental science and policy, neuroscience, and other emerging fields. In particular, Smith has earned a leadership position in preparing women for careers in science and engineering as well as law, medicine, and business. The Impact Careers Initiative of the Aspen Institute ranks Smith fifth among the top liberal arts colleges for number of graduates entering public service. Smith's educational offerings include a number of co-educational graduate programs, including a nationally recognized School for Social Work with academic semesters during the summer.

3 Page 3 of 8 Smith s 298 faculty members are dedicated teachers who are also active researchers, performers, writers, and leading recipients of grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and other pre-eminent funding agencies. Study abroad is a prominent feature of the Smith experience, with the support of a home-school fees model. The college runs highly regarded programs in Florence, Geneva, Hamburg, and Paris and is a member of a number of study abroad consortia. Smith is consistently a national leader in student-won Fulbright Fellowships, producing 19 in with a record cohort of 43 applicants. With a 9:1 student-to-faculty ratio, Smith s enrollment and faculty size allow it to combine the curricular breadth of a small university with the close personal attention of a residential liberal arts college. This supportive academic environment is complemented by a unique residential program in which undergraduates live in one of 37 residential houses accommodating from 12 to 100 students. Shared governance at Smith is strong. Key to the role of the controller is working with Smith s board of trustees, including staff support for the audit committee, as well as regular participation in the finance and investment committees. The controller also chairs the college s compliance committee and is involved in overseeing compliance activities across the academic and administrative areas of the college. The college s Olmsted-designed 147-acre campus - one of the nation s oldest botanic gardens - includes 110 academic, residential, administrative, and support buildings, totaling 3.4 million square feet of space. Smith s libraries include the Sophia Smith Collection, the largest repository of women s history archives; an internationally esteemed rare book collection; and libraries for the fine arts, the performing arts, and the sciences. The Smith College Museum of Art is consistently recognized as one of the nation s best college art museums, and the Mendenhall Center for the Performing Arts houses one of New England s finest concert halls. The campus center provides the Smith community with a comprehensive environment for social and intellectual interaction. In 2009, Ford Hall, an engineering and science building, joined a complex of five other science buildings that comprise a state-of-the-art network of teaching and research laboratories and classrooms designed to promote and support interdisciplinary inquiry. In all, Smith s facilities support a wide array of activities on campus, including more than 100 student organizations and varsity, club, and intramural athletics teams. The Smith s campus is ideally situated. It is located just steps from the center of Northampton, Massachusetts, a city of 30,000 that is home to a vibrant social and cultural scene. The college s idyllic location in the Connecticut River Valley offers access to the natural beauty and attractions of New England and is just a two-hour drive from Boston and three hours from New York City. Smith is a member of the Five College Consortium, which affords students a wide range of academic, cultural, and social advantages. A unique private/public partnership among five educational institutions, Five Colleges, Inc., is one of the oldest and most esteemed collaborative partnerships in American higher education. It includes nearby Amherst

4 Page 4 of 8 College, Hampshire College, and Mount Holyoke College, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The consortium provides an array of shared services, including cross-registration, joint courses of study, transportation, faculty appointments and exchanges, and combined library catalogues. Members also collaborate in a variety of administrative areas including joint ownership of a fiber-optic network, a joint campus police department, a shared property rentals department, and joint risk management. THE CURRENT FINANCIAL SITUATION Over the course of 139 years, Smith alumnae and leadership have built a $1.7 billion endowment, one of the largest at a liberal arts college. The endowment is managed by Investure, a highly regarded, high-performing external firm established in 2003 with Smith as one of its first clients. Investure provides sophisticated investment management expertise and top-tier returns comparable to those of major university endowments. Over the past 10 years annual returns have averaged 7.3%, substantially higher than those of many peer institutions. Smith has been especially well managed financially, guided by a dedicated and knowledgeable Board of Trustees, a disciplined administration, and a tradition of collaborative budgeting and financial planning. The college expects annual operating revenue of $235 million in the current fiscal year, with expenses of $234 million. During the fiscal downturns of the last decade, the college s leadership and governance bodies responded promptly with effective financial plans and actions that ensured the college s finances remained in balance. Smith stands on very strong financial ground as affirmed by its Aa1 rating by Moody s and AA+ by Standard and Poor s. Additional details regarding the college s strong financial position are outlined in the financial statements: LEADERSHIP Kathleen McCartney, previously dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, became the 11 th president of Smith College on July 1, President McCartney is an internationally recognized authority on child development and early education. A graduate of Tufts and Yale universities, she has served as a Tufts University trustee and on the founding board of edx, the online education consortium founded by Harvard University and MIT. Michael Howard has served as the vice president for finance and administration at Smith since January 1, He is a member of the president s cabinet and is responsible for the major administrative functions of the college: finance, accounting, information technology, facilities management, human resources, campus sustainability and space planning, dining services, and campus police. The finance and administration department has 330 employees. Prior to joining Smith, Mr. Howard served as the vice president for finance at MIT. Before working in higher education, he spent more than twenty years as a senior finance and operations executive at Fidelity Investments and as a strategy consultant with Deloitte Consulting.

5 Page 5 of 8 THE CONTROLLER The mission of the controller s office is to account for, report on, and safeguard the financial resources of the institution in a manner that supports the college. The controller oversees thirteen employees, including three direct reports. The controller also plays a leadership role within Smith s community of administrative officers, serving across the college s academic and administrative departments, setting an appropriate tone for how fiscal matters are handled within the Smith community. The controller also leads the college s compliance and risk management programs, including oversight of the risk management services provide by Five Colleges, Inc. OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES The controller occupies a critical leadership post at Smith. She or he will oversee and enhance a complex financial operation and must have the experience and sound technical skills to manage and lead well. Given the president s ambitious vision and goals for Smith, it is essential that the controller develop a high-performing team, establish a culture of excellence and continuous improvement, and provide the highest quality accounting judgment. The primary opportunities and challenges for the controller will include but are not limited to the following: Ensure the accuracy and timeliness of all financial reporting and maintain a robust compliance and risk management programs. The controller will provide the leadership needed to ensure Smith s accounting processes and systems are positioned to fully meet the current and evolving needs. She or he will ensure high standards with regard to the quality and value of financial processing and reporting, working closely with the appropriate team members and senior leaders to ensure that the institution meeting requirements and delivering significant value. This includes: maintaining accounting control over the college s financial, as well as account reconciliations and bank reconciliations; preparing the college s annual financial statements in a timely manner, meeting other external reporting requirements; and preparing the college s tax filings and establishing policies and procedures to ensure compliance with local, state, and federal laws and regulations. Maintain current knowledge of laws, rules, regulations, and standards in higher education accounting and financial reporting The controller must not only be well versed on current policies and procedures but also anticipate changes and be sensitive to trends in accounting standards and changes to government guidelines. She or he must understand and analyze

6 Page 6 of 8 the environment for risk and prepare a strategy for managing change and mitigating risk as needed. It is the responsibility of the controller to address these changes and environmental shifts proactively and strategically and communicate them appropriately to a broad range of internal and external constituents. The individual should be an active participant in networks of controller colleagues in other institutions. Lead a strategic, long-term effort to improve the college s financial processes, systems and data The controller will be deeply engaged in critical aspects of the college s accounting and financial reporting systems. She or he will be responsible for envisioning a future state for Smith s Controller s Office that is more technologyenabled, with greater levels of automation. Additionally, the controller will be responsible for improving the quality of Smith s financial data, increasing accessibility through self-service reporting. This vision must be balanced with the need to manage change effectively, maintaining existing service delivery, and integration with other administrative systems initiatives. The college is beginning a new IT strategic planning effort under a new chief information officer (CIO). The controller will be a key participant in the process and partner to the CIO, especially with regard to its enterprise resource planning platform. Be a strategic partner and collaborative problem-solver to members of the Smith community The controller will join a dynamic organization in the midst of an ambitious program of strategic advancement and change. She or he will be in a position to directly support this exciting effort by proactively partnering with leaders across the college community. The controller will be uniquely able to be a strategic partner and agent for change with leaders in academic and administrative departments as they try to evolve and advance their own programs and capabilities to the emerging needs and opportunities. This will require establishing a strong leadership presence within the community and developing trusted relationships. The controller will be seen as an effective problem-solver and solution-provider to all segments of the Smith community. Attract, retain and develop a team of high performing, professional accounting professionals and a culture of high performance The new controller will inherit a dedicated and talented staff. She or he must continue to inspire, support, and manage accomplished professionals with a wide range of expertise and responsibility and a strong service orientation. Through accessible and supportive leadership, clarity of purpose, and ongoing opportunities for development, the controller will enable the team to continue to improve performance. She or he will set the highest standards of professional

7 Page 7 of 8 conduct and competence, and furnish the leadership necessary to assure an optimum level of staff performance and expertise. The new controller must be proactive in ensuring the professional growth and development of the staff. THE SUCCESSFUL CANDIDATE Smith will search nationally for candidates, with an emphasis on senior finance professionals with proven effectiveness in the academic environment. The college also welcomes candidates with relevant experience in other settings whose intellect, accounting expertise, and leadership skills indicate a capacity to serve Smith well as its next controller. While no one person will embody them all, the successful candidate will bring many of the following professional qualifications, skills, experience, and personal qualities: Deep and broad knowledge of the key accounting functions in higher education, particularly fund accounting and investment accounting; Accounting and financial systems experience and the ability to develop policies, procedures, and systems within the context of a strategic, financial, and business planning environment. A transparent disposition and habit of collaboration; strong interpersonal skills and diplomacy; superb listening and influencing skills; the ability to cultivate and sustain trust and credibility with colleagues with across the institution and governance structure, from staff to trustees; an active listener, facilitator, convener, and mediator; Demonstrated capacity to communicate broadly across an institution; the ability to convey technically complex information and concepts in accessible terms to a broad array of stakeholders; A track record of outstanding management, open in style; demonstrated ability to mentor and support staff and provide successful oversight of people, budget, and space; an operational manager able to hire, develop, and retain talented people, define and implement effective management structures and systems, establish and uphold high performance standards, and sustain a culture defined by excellence and responsiveness; A demonstrated commitment to the goals of a liberal arts education and to the education of women; Unimpeachable integrity and ethics; high standards of excellence; Maturity, presence, enthusiasm, and optimism; a sense of humor;

8 Page 8 of 8 A bachelor s degree and a CPA certification are required and an MBA or other advanced degree in accounting, finance, business, or related field is preferred. TO APPLY Smith College has engaged Isaacson, Miller, a national executive search firm, to assist with this search. Inquiries, nominations and applications should be directed in confidence to the firm as directed below. Please send resume with cover letter, preferably electronically, in strict confidence to: Rebecca Kennedy, Principal Joanna Cook, Associate Isaacson, Miller Smith College is an equal opportunity employer.

SEARCH PROSPECTUS: Dean of the College of Law

SEARCH PROSPECTUS: Dean of the College of Law TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 The College of Law 4 Mission of the College of Law Academics and Curriculum at the College of Law 5 History, Accreditation and Enrollment