Three on Shortlist for CFO Position
Three candidates contending for the Academy’s position of chief financial officer (CFO) will visit Exeter’s campus in the upcoming days for the final stage of the application process.Two candidates are external to Exeter. Richard Myers is the senior associate dean for administration and planning at the University of Virginia, and David Hanson is senior vice president and chief operating officer as well as vice president for finance and administration at Virginia Commonwealth University. The third candidate is Justin Merrill, current director of finance and acting chief financial officer at the Academy.The principal duty of Exeter’s CFO is to administer the financial and business operations of the school. Although elected as an officer of the trustees, they are also an administrative agent who reports to the principal.In addition, many departments communicate to the CFO, including Finance and Accounting, Facilities Management, Human Resources, Information Technology Services and Dining Services.“The CFO probably has seven or eight people reporting directly to them,” Patricia Babecki, math instructor and member of the search committee, said. “Those who report to them are managing a large chunk of the administrative staff of the school.”The gravity of the position is equivalent to the extensive consideration necessary in evaluating the final applicants this fall. Chris Weichert, PEA’s former CFO, left the Academy at the end of the spring term.“The size and scope of Exeter’s endowment and related financial and operating activities justify a thorough and diligent search process for the Academy’s next CFO,” Marijka Beauchesne, controller of the finance office, said.At the beginning of the school year Principal Tom Hassan convened a search committee consisting of physics instructor David Gulick, Babecki, Dean of Faculty Ronald Kim and two trustees, Tony Downer and Walter Donovan. The group met for the first time a few days before the start of fall term.“A search committee, which is put together for a one time job, is fairly standard for deciding the position of a senior official,” Babecki said.The committee also hired a search firm to help pinpoint prospective candidates.“The search firm is a group of people who help companies or schools identify qualified candidates for a position,” Babecki said. “People can apply directly, but they also can be found by the search firm’s contacts and large networks.”Over a period of several months the search company filtered through a large pool of candidates, many of whom were both qualified and interested in the job. The firm brought forward a variety of applicants and, with Exeter’s values as the chief criteria in the decision, narrowed the group down to six semifinalists.From there, on a weekend in the middle of October, the committee interviewed the six finalists on campus and eliminated an additional three.“Everybody we’ve looked at is someone who has had a very similar experience,” Babecki said. “Either they are already CFO or something very similar to that. They work in all of the areas that we hope our CFO will be able to handle.”Prospective applicants will arrive separately on campus this Thursday as well as next Monday and Tuesday for days dedicated to the interview process.The schedule will include meetings with individuals and groups of people in addition to two question-and-answer sessions with faculty and staff who are interested in the change.“I am hoping that other faculty go ahead and ask them questions, and I am looking forward to what other faculty have to say so that when the search committee meets again, we might have some feedback of what faculty are thinking,” Gulick said.“We tried to construct the two open sessions so that they would be times that are most convenient for every employee,” Kim said. “It is important because the CFO has direct and indirect responsibilities for so much that happens here.”The school hopes to announce the new CFO before the end of the term, according to Babecki.Currently, Hanson is responsible for managing all financial and operational services for the University, including finance, debt, treasury, budget, controller, research compliance, investment management, business services and related administrative units. Hanson additionally oversees the University budget and planning of $920 million. He received a B.S. degree from the University of Tampa’s Sykes College of Business, and earned a J.D. from Ohio Northern University. He holds two master’s degrees in education and business from the University of Florida and Emory University, respectively, and earned an Ed.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.Upon arriving at the Academy in 2005, Merrill steadily progressed through positions of increasing importance, coming to Exeter as senior financial analyst and becoming Director of Finance in 2012. Merrill graduated with a B.A. degree in economics, with a minor in German, from Dartmouth College. In addition, Merrill has both an M.B.A. and an M.S. degree in information systems from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.Myers, with a 20-year career in educational administration in some of the nation’s most respected colleges and universities, has held roles spanning both in administrative and academic areas. He received three degrees from the University of Virginia: a B.A. with distinction in the history of art, a master’s in education and a Ph.D. in higher education.