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Position Description:
The Vice President for Finance and
Administration is the University’s principal financial officer and a
member of the President’s leadership team. He or she is responsible
for overall strategic management and proactive leadership of both
Finance and Buildings and Administrative Services, as well as for
all of the University’s reporting and compliance responsibilities in
the US and France. Primary responsibilities include working with the
President to carry out strategic financial management of the
University and budget development in alignment with institutional
goals, monitoring and control of budgets, preparation of financial
information for management and reporting, management of all
University buildings and auxiliary activities, negotiation of all
contractual agreements, management and review of staff under Finance
and Buildings and Grounds, oversight of the annual audit processes
for both French and US accounts, liaising with University legal and
financial counselors, and regular reporting to the Board of Trustees
and its designated committees.
The University:
Chartered as a liberal arts college in 1962, the American University
of Paris is today an urban, independent, international university
located at the confluence of France, Europe, and the world. We aim
to provide the finest American undergraduate and graduate programs
to students from all national, linguistic, and educational
backgrounds, and to take our place as a renowned global center for
innovative interdisciplinary research.
The University’s mission is to educate AUP graduates to communicate
well in a world of many languages, to think critically about
history, culture, the arts, science, politics, business,
communication, and society, to develop creative interdisciplinary
approaches to important contemporary challenges, to be both
technologically and culturally literate in a world of swift-paced
change, to understand the ethical imperatives of living in such a
world, and to take their places as responsible actors in
communities, civil societies, and countries around the globe.
AUP’s is an academic culture of engagement,
global citizenship, and community that fosters in students and
faculty alike a critical sense of commitment to and responsibility
for a world of interdependence. In the multilingual, multicultural
learning environment of The American University of Paris, students
develop a capacity for ethical and political judgment that is alert
to cultural diversity. In the living laboratory that is Paris, in
the exceptional space of the AUP classroom, students and faculty of
100 different nationalities meet to articulate civic values and
negotiate difference, as together they question, reflect upon, and
work toward creative solutions to real-world challenges.
Location as Endowment:
Spread across eight buildings in Paris’ 7th arrondissement
stretching from the Eiffel Tower to the Invalides, AUP has the
remarkable advantage of its unparalleled location. The University
shares this neighborhood with other American institutions, such as
the American Library of Paris, and the American Church. This past
year, AUP purchased its third building, known as Combes, a block
from the Seine, and is actively pursuing opportunities to
consolidate its real estate in central Paris. AUP’s substantial
endowment has always been our location in the greatest city in the
world, and, investing it wisely, we have attached our curriculum to
the histories of the city—to Paris’s many centuries of art, culture,
literature, politics, music, sociology and the like, to its
monuments, libraries, neighborhoods, but also to the edgy new Paris
of demographic shifts, rising multiculturalism, food that is other
than French, urban renewal, and texts in many different languages.
AUP’s Academic Program:
AUP is a small, dynamic “world university” with
a curriculum to match—one that focuses on the cross cultural and the
comparative. The University’s curriculum is essentially American,
although inflected by the international educational background of
AUP’s diverse faculty body. The rigorous University curriculum is
divided into four schools—Arts and Sciences, Communications and
Film, International Business, and International Politics, Economics
and Public Policy—which house 14 different undergraduate majors and
8 graduate programs. Interdisciplinary programs and minors flourish
across all four divisions, driven by faculty research interests and
scholarly passions. AUP is also host to an interdisciplinary Arts
Arena, a Forum for Culture and Society, a Center for Writers and
Translators, a Cahiers series, an AUP Fine Arts Gallery space, and
numerous lecture series, such as the Working Paper Series in the
Social Sciences, and the AUP Public Lectures in the Humanities. AUP
also enjoys partnerships with a global consortium of 22 American
universities across Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and North
Africa, as well as with liberal arts institutions in the US, and
national universities across Europe. A transatlantic international
curriculum is currently being designed in partnership with the
Eugene Lang College of The New School in New York City.
Students:
AUP students come from virtually every
educational system in the world, representing approximately 100
different nationalities each year. The entering class has brought 87
different languages and dialects into the University since 2001. The
exceptional demographic diversity of the University community has a
powerful impact on teaching and learning, and is the first reason
students cite for choosing to get a degree at AUP. Along with all
the other constituents of the University, students contribute
handsomely to the culture of interdependence at AUP. Forty per cent
of AUP’s students come from the fifty states of the US, 15% from
France, and the rest from 98 different nationalities across the
globe.
Faculty:
AUP’s faculty body is composed of 23 different
nationalities, representing all continents of the world. Dedicated
to teaching, the faculty is also richly productive, hosting high
numbers of international conferences, study groups, research
projects, and events each year. Faculty research tends to focus on
the cross-cultural, the comparative, and the interdisciplinary,
supporting the University’s mission of producing students for a
world held in common. A shared curricular vision stretches across
the four divisions at both graduate and undergraduate levels, one
that looks toward global sustainability, conflict resolution, world
governance, cultural translation, and address of social injustice by
every disciplinary tool at our disposal, but most important of all,
focuses upon the steady cultivation of our own and our students’
humanity. AUP has no separate graduate faculty—all faculty members
who participate in graduate teaching also teach in the undergraduate
program.
University Governance
and Reporting Relationships:
AUP is led by the President, who is appointed
by a 26-member Board of Trustees comprised of dedicated alumni,
business leaders, nonprofit leaders, and people from a range of
professions and walks of life. AUP’s Board Chair, Judith Ogilvie, is
an alumna of the first class of graduates. Increasing numbers of
alumni have joined the Board, bringing further passion and
commitment to planning for AUP’s future.
In October 2008, Celeste Schenck became AUP’s
twelfth president. Having served AUP for nearly 20 years in multiple
capacities, President Schenck was a Professor of Comparative
Literature, Associate Dean for Curriculum Development, Vice
President for Academic Innovation, Vice President for Development
and Grants Management, Dean of the University and Provost before
assuming presidential responsibility. Schenck is a scholar of
women’s literature, editor of multiple series, and, more recently,
co-author of books on women, culture, and development. She received
her undergraduate degree from Princeton University and her doctorate
from Brown University.
The Vice President for Finance and
Administration reports directly to the President, with whom he or
she will work intensely and closely to establish a new and
strengthened business model for AUP. The Vice President for Finance
and Administration serves as a member of the President’s Cabinet,
along with the VP for Student Services, the Director of Admissions,
the Director of Development, the Academic Dean, and four faculty
leaders of the four academic divisions.
Key responsibilities for
AUP’s next Vice President for Finance and Administration:
• Support the President in the management of the University and its
associated entities
• Serve as a member of the President’s Cabinet, participating fully
in the strategic and operational management of the University
• Lead and manage strategically the Finance and Building and
Administrative Services teams, including finance, real estate and
auxiliary enterprises
• Take responsibility for the financial and accounting management of
the University, including timely and accurate reporting, mastery of
foreign exchange currency markets, management of both French and US
statutory requirements
• Work with the President and other senior staff members, as well as
constituencies across the University to build the annual budget,
striving at all times for transparency and broad-based participation
• Prepare documents for and report regularly to the Board Business
Affairs, Audit, Legal, Real Estate and Executive Committees, as
required
• Prepare financial documents for and present them to the
University’s comité d’entreprise, as required, and
participate in annual salary negotiations with the délégués
syndicaux.
• Take full responsibility for the University’s compliance with
appropriate French and US regulatory bodies
• Prepare annual budgets in alignment with the University’s
strategic institutional goals, and oversee their effective use,
working with the President to tie planning and budgeting efforts and
then to monitor progress.
• Conduct regular appraisals of the departments’ staff, reviewing
training and development needs as part of the process
• Keep centralized records of all University contracts,
incorporation certificates, and legal and juridical documents
• Take primary responsibility for all University insurance
policies—personnel, students, buildings, and liability
• Attend to savings and cost reductions by means of outsourcing,
renegotiation of contracts, and reorganization of staff
responsibilities as the ERP is implemented in 2010-2012.
• Attend to policies, procedures, and business processes
University-wide, working with direct reports, HR, and members of the
Cabinet to ensure a high level of professional organization and
accountability
• Establish appropriate “risk” scenarios and security policies and
procedures
• Take institutional responsibility for maintaining Standards 2
(Planning, Resource Allocation and Institutional Renewal) and 3
(Institutional Resources) in the Middle States Characteristics of
Excellence, including all assessment, reporting, and requirements
falling under them.
Finance:
• Primary responsibility for managing the University’s resources
strategically, developing and monitoring auxiliary revenue streams,
investing all surplus funds—all of these in alignment with
institutional goals
• Supervise the Finance Director in the day-to-day management of the
Finance Department, preparing monthly management reports,
maintaining cash flow, supporting the Bursar in policy decisions on
students fees and debts, and overseeing both declaration and payment
of payroll charges and taxes
• Work with the Financial Aid Officer and the Bursar to create and
maintain internal processes for disbursement and reporting on Title
IV aid, including the annual Title IV audit.
• Prepare the US and French annual financial statements, holding the
highest standards for the quality of those reports, including French
commissariat aux comptes and US GAAP accounts, and US Board
of Education Title IV audits, and overseeing the related audit
processes
• Prepare and review budgets, forecasts, multi-year budgets and cash
flow projections
• Liaise regularly with appropriate Board committees and prepare
materials for Board meetings
• Prepare, analyze and interpret monthly reports in a timely and
accurate manner
• Oversee the implementation of the ERP in Finance, establishing and
maintaining control procedures in both manual and computerized
systems
• Liaise with tax advisors and tax authorities in both France and
the US, filing French and US tax forms on the University’s behalf
with appropriate consultation
Buildings and
Administrative Services:
• Primary responsibility for creation and monitoring of progress
toward the University’s Campus Plan.
• Supervise the Director of Buildings and Administrative Services in
managing maintenance services, including property refurbishment,
submissions of planning applications and building approvals,
consulting with legal advisers, conducting mandated security audits,
searching for properties and facilities, renting and purchase of
buildings, management of the campus, purchasing and mail and
communication services Negotiate rental or purchase of appropriate
space or buildings
Qualifications:
To succeed in this role, you will need to hold a degree in
accounting or finance, or an MBA. In addition, you will need to have
a proven record of senior business management and leadership
experience in a similar role with responsibility for administrative
services which may, in exceptional cases, take the place of both
qualifications listed above. You will need to demonstrate proven
management and team-building experience. You will also have a
demonstrable record in strategic financial management. Excellent
oral presentation and written communication skills are required. You
will provide evidence of your discretion, your judgment and
diplomacy via the references you provide. You will manifest
awareness of the current international education landscape, with
knowledge of nonprofit compliance and reporting responsibilities in
the US and France. You must speak both French and English, and feel
comfortable working with legal and financial documents in both
languages. You will cross cultural borders with ease. You will
receive special attention if you already have the legal right to
work in France (although the latter is not a requirement for the
job), and show promise of thriving in AUP’s special environment.
If this sounds like the
job for you, kindly submit:
• A letter demonstrating your interest in leading proactively AUP’s
financial and administrative functions in a highly competitive,
international higher education environment
• A review of your own experience, including your strengths and
weaknesses in light of the job description
• A curriculum vitae or resumé
• A list of three referees, including email addresses and telephone
numbers, whom the search committee may contact
Applications should be
sent by e-mail to Susan Mackay, Office of the President:
smackay@aup.fr
Compensation:
Open, depending upon experience, and competitive.
Starting Date: As soon as possible
Review of applications will begin immediately
and continue until the position is filled, with a desired starting
date of early fall 2010. |
