Chief Financial Officer
Chief Financial Officer
Minneapolis, MN
The Minneapolis College of Art and Design educates individuals to be professional artists and designers, pioneering thinkers, creative leaders, and engaged global citizens.
THE SEARCH
The Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD), a private, nonprofit, four-year, and postgraduate college, seeks a strategic financial leader to serve as its next Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Reporting directly to the President and working in close partnership with other senior leadership and the Board of Trustees, the new CFO will bring exceptional financial analysis, planning, and systems thinking expertise to supporting the goals of the College's recently approved strategic plan, Forming and Transforming MCAD's Adaptive Strategy.
Founded in 1886 as a small school of drawing and painting, MCAD has been a leader as a college of art and design as one of the founding members of accrediting bodies and organizations known for excellence in the field. Since 2008, the institution has experienced impressive enrollment growth with an average headcount of 798 students each fall. MCAD’s investments in technology and innovative learning modalities have enabled the institution to weather the 2020 pandemic storm well. MCAD employs 37 full-time faculty and 125 staff and administrators, with approximately 488 total staff.
The CFO will enhance financial operations and systems in order to support MCAD’s mission to prepare current and future students as becoming the next generation of creative cultural leaders, innovative artistic practitioners, and entrepreneurs. The CFO is responsible for providing fiscal strategies and management, while also fostering an ethos of innovation, transparency, collaboration, responsibility, and accountability. Key to this role is the development and support of integrated financial, operational, and capital plans.
The CFO has responsibility for a $35 million operating budget and has direct oversight of the finance department and human resources. They are also responsible for the college’s $60 million endowment, supervising and monitoring its activity for appropriate use. The CFO is expected to maintain a close working partnership with the Vice President of Operations and Technology. In addition, the CFO also serves as the college’s treasurer and has staff responsibilities for the Board Finance & Operations, Executive, and Audit Committees.
The ideal candidate will be an accomplished financial leader, natural collaborator, and gifted manager of people, processes, projects, and systems - an inventive and experienced leader who is well versed in trends in higher education financial management. The CFO will possess knowledge of best practices in the areas of finance for an organization of MCAD’s size and aspirations. An understanding of student financial services and advancement best practices as they relate to overall financial management and strategic planning is also sought. The CFO will have keen strategic and operational financial planning skills, financial acumen, superb staff and project management skills, a natural bias for action and doing, and a communicative and collegial working style. An advanced degree is preferred. Experience in a higher education environment of similar size and complexity is desirable.
MCAD has retained Isaacson, Miller, a national executive search firm, to assist in the recruitment of its next CFO. Please direct all applications, nominations, and inquiries to Isaacson, Miller, as indicated at the end of this document.
TO APPLY
Confidential inquiries, nominations, and/or resumes with cover letters may be directed electronically to:
Dan Rodas, Partner
Tim Lanigan, Senior Associate
Isaacson, Miller
263 Summer Street, Boston, MA 02210
https://www.imsearch.com/search-detail/S8-561
MCAD is an equal opportunity employer and educator.