Financial and Operational Leadership

John routinely oversaw multi-million-dollar institutional operating and capital budgets, and the investment management of large endowments and pension funds through Chief Investment Officers and other third-party experts. Examples of his achievements include:

  • Fiscal management at several organizations resulted in consecutive years of unqualified opinions from independent auditors with only minor management letter issues
  • Managed several comprehensive multi-year restructuring efforts to sustainably reduce budgeted operating expenses. Examples of actions taken include:
    • Discreetly planned and implemented staffing reorganizations
    • Eliminated expensive and low reward programs and operations
    • Right-sized capital budgets
    • Restructured employees’ benefits programs
    • Planned the monetization of institutionally owned real estate or air rights
    • Identified core operating functions that could be successfully outsourced
    • Initiated expense- and service-sharing relationships with similar local organizations
  • Restructured millions in bond debt, resulting in significant cash improvements over multiple years, while successfully maintaining stable credit ratings with Fitch and Moody’s
  • Collaborated with a board’s Audit Committee to retain an organization’s first internal audit firm to help with strengthening internal controls, identifying operational inefficiencies, and supporting an enterprise risk management program
  • Renegotiated multi-million-dollar contracts with key service providers for food services, bookstores, and other core services achieving greater contractual protection for the organizations and more reliable income streams
  • Established a durable culture of financial transparency and accountability via 100% compliance with a board-approved voluntary Sarbanes-Oxley program for nonprofit organizations
  • Instituted multi-year cash forecasts that were fully reconciled with new GAAP-compliant operating budgets
  • During the COVID-19 crisis, led a team that successfully obtained a $7 million loan from the federal Small Business Administration’s Payroll Protection Program. That work included convincing the SBA to forgive an institution’s repayment of the entire $7 million.