MCARD - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Financial Analyst Senior - Forecasting & Analysis
Job Titles:
- Internal Controls Compliance Manager
Job Titles:
- Associate Vice President
- Member of the Finance Lead Team
- Associate Vice President for Finance at the University of Michigan
- Lead Team
Brian Smith is the associate vice president for finance at the University of Michigan. In this role, Brian is responsible for the university's central financial functions including purchasing, accounting, payroll, risk management, and sponsored programs.
He is also responsible for the externally audited financial statements, financial analysis, internal controls, tax management, and treasury functions. Finance includes more than 350 employees on the Ann Arbor campus.
Prior to becoming the associate vice president for finance, Brian served as the senior assistant vice chancellor and treasurer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. During his career at UNC, Brian also held the positions of assistant vice chancellor for finance and accounting, interim associate vice chancellor for finance, director of treasury and risk management services, director of treasury operations, and university debt manager.
Before joining UNC, he held management positions at Wachovia Bank-now known as Wells Fargo-for 11 years. Brian is a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill with a B.A. in economics.
Job Titles:
- Financial Analyst Lead - Forecasting & Analysis
Job Titles:
- Controller
- Member of the Finance Lead Team
- Assistant Vice President for Financial Operations and Controller
- Lead Team
Cheryl Soper is the assistant vice president for financial operations and controller for the University of Michigan. Her responsibilities include financial reporting and the integrity of all underlying accounting records; payroll; student billing and loans; accounting operations, including current and noncurrent fund accounting; and investment accounting.
Prior to joining the University of Michigan, Cheryl was a senior manager at PwC, where she provided accounting and auditing services to a wide variety of education, not-for-profit and other organizations, including SEC companies.
Cheryl, a B.B.A. graduate of the University of Michigan, is a certified public accountant and past chair of the National Association of College and University Business Officials (NACUBO) Accounting Principles Council. In 2010, Cheryl received the Daniel D. Robinson Accounting Award from NACUBO for her ongoing commitment to the advancement of college and university accounting and financial reporting. Cheryl currently serves on the NACUBO Higher Education Accounting Forum Planning Committee and has also served on local community organization boards and finance committees.
Job Titles:
- Internal Controls Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Assistant Vice President
- Member of the Finance Lead Team
- Assistant Vice President for Finance - Sponsored Programs
- Lead Team
Debbie Talley is the assistant vice president for finance-sponsored programs at the University of Michigan. The Sponsored Programs area manages the post-award activities of the university's research enterprise and other sponsored activities to ensure compliance with applicable federal, state, and local laws, and sponsor regulations. The university receives over $1 billion annually in revenues from various government agencies and private sources for sponsored programs. Beyond leading Sponsored Programs, Debbie assists the associate vice president for finance with a variety of day-to-day operations in Finance, including communications and human resources.
Debbie has been working in the accounting field for 40 years. She joined Finance nearly 30 years ago and has held a variety of positions in the division over the years. During her career in Finance, Debbie has had an integral role in a variety of important Finance and U-M initiatives, including implementing PeopleSoft, reorganizing Sponsored Programs to better serve its customers, working on the university's financial statements with the controller and external auditors, streamlining financial processes to make them more efficient, and leading the shared services finance project team. Debbie has a B.B.A. in accounting from Eastern Michigan University.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Vice President
- Member of the Finance Lead Team
- Treasurer
- Assistant Vice President and Treasurer at the University of Michigan
- Lead Team
Drew Smith is the assistant vice president and treasurer at the University of Michigan. His major areas of oversight are cash and debt management. Drew's responsibilities also include managing banking relationships, credit cards and depository programs, ATM leases, vendor check writing, the university's ID card program, and debt policy.
Before joining the Treasurer's Office, Drew served as the deputy chief financial officer and head of treasury for the city of Boston, MA. In these roles, he supported the city's chief financial officer in overseeing the management of the city's financial resources, including cash management, debt management, and revenue collection. He also directed the investment management, capital planning, and granting activities of the city of Boston's multi-purpose testamentary and non-testamentary trusts.
Prior to working at the city of Boston, Drew served as the deputy assistant treasurer for debt management at the commonwealth of Massachusetts, where he helped manage $14 billion in financing transactions. He received his B.S. in business administration-with a major in finance and investment management-from the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, AR.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Finance Lead Team
- Lead Team
- Tax Director
- Tax Director at the University of Michigan
Edward J. Jennings is the tax director at the University of Michigan. His responsibilities include providing tax planning and compliance services in addition to resolving conflicts with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and other state and local taxing agencies on behalf of the university and its affiliates.
He serves on the Taxation Council of the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) which he chaired from 2010 through 2012. Ed also serves as a member of the Planning Committees for the Higher Education Tax Institute (HETI) and for the Treasury Institute for Higher Education Tax Exempt Bond Compliance Workshop and speaks frequently at these and other conferences for nonprofit organizations. He served as a member of the IRS Information Reporting Program Advisory Committee (IRPAC) from 2006 until 2008.
His articles "The Taxation and Reporting of Distributions Derived from Licensing Intellectual Property" and "Managing the Tax Consequences of Alternative Investments" appeared respectively in the March/April 2004 edition and the July/August and September/October 2006 editions of Taxation of Exempts. He is the recipient of the NACUBO Tax Award for 2007.
Ed graduated from St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with a B.S. in Accounting and from Wake Forest University School of Law in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, with a J.D. He is licensed as a CPA and holds bar licenses in the states of North Carolina and Illinois.
Job Titles:
- BI Analyst Senior - Data Analytics
Job Titles:
- Member of the Finance Lead Team
- Lead Team
- Special Advisor to the Associate Vice President
Frank Kinney serves as a special advisor to the associate vice president for finance, playing a pivotal role in supporting the organization's ERP-related planning and various other strategic initiatives. Notably, he contributes to the development and enhancement of our executive-level management reporting framework. Frank brings a wealth of experience, encompassing diverse financial and management expertise, particularly within the realm of higher education.
His professional background includes holding interim administrative leadership positions and serving as a management consultant and independent auditor in peer colleges and universities. Frank has previously served as a project leader in Huron Consulting Group's higher education practice. In this capacity, he led engagements focusing on ERP stabilization, business process improvement, research compliance, and undertook interim roles such as controller, director of post-award accounting, director of financial reporting, and director of financial management and business analytics across multiple peer institutions.
Frank holds a B.A. from Lawrence University and an MBA from the Keller Graduate School of Management at DeVry University.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of the Finance Lead Team
- Director of Enterprise
- Director of Enterprise Financial Planning & Analysis
- Director of Financial Planning & Analysis
Jackie Schroeders is the director of enterprise financial planning & analysis and is responsible for a wide variety of financial services provided to the U-M community. These services include leading the annual Business and Finance budget process, consolidating the institution's annual $9 billion budget, and reviewing/approving all internal recharge rate services to ensure compliance with university and federal guidelines.
In addition, Jackie has a leadership role in the development of a financial data analytics strategy as well as financial dashboards, key performance indicators, management reporting, and analytics for the Office of the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and Finance.
Jackie has an extensive background in higher ed, including the development of budget processes, financial planning and modeling, and systems implementation. Before joining Finance, Jackie was a higher education strategy and operations consultant at Huron Consulting Group, Inc., where she provided a wide range of services to clients, including budget redesigns, financial planning and assessments, financial reporting, and academic portfolio analysis modeling.
Prior to joining Huron, Jackies served as the associate dean of financial affairs/chief financial officer for colleges within the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Rutgers University systems. In these roles, she had responsibility for accounting, budgeting and financial planning, financial reporting, the clinical revenue cycle, and a number of other key services. In her career prior to higher ed, Jackie served as a controller/vice president of finance in the financial services industry.
Jackie holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.A. in accounting from Rutgers University.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director - Forecasting & Analysis
Job Titles:
- Business Analyst Senior - Planning & Analysis
Job Titles:
- Administrative Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of the Finance Lead Team
- Director of Enterprise
- Director of Enterprise Strategic Risk Management
- Lead Team
Lorraine Currie is the director of enterprise strategic risk management, a program created at U-M in 2018 to formalize the university's approach to identify, assess, prioritize, and respond to risks jeopardizing the institution's strategic objectives or with broad impacts to the institution's operations.
As the inaugural director of enterprise strategic risk management, she establishes, manages, and facilitates the university's enterprise and strategic risk management strategy and framework. In this role, Lorraine identifies emerging and evolving risks impacting higher education, healthcare, and research to analyze potential impacts to U-M. To facilitate engagement in the risk management process, she cultivates collaborative relationships with operational and senior leaders and coordinates the Enterprise Risk Management Committee to support executive leadership risk efforts.
Prior to assuming her current role, Lorraine served as a senior audit manager in Audit Services at U-M, where she, among other things, worked closely with university and unit-level leadership to plan and implement audits, performed special projects, conducted investigations, and identified improvement opportunities. She was also part of the team that managed the university's Compliance Hotline, including triaging reports and conducting investigations.
Before joining U-M, Lorraine worked at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and PwC in a number of assurance and consulting roles. She has a B.B.A. from the University of Michigan and holds a Certification in Risk Management Assurance. She is also a Certified Internal Auditor and Certified Information Systems Auditor.
Job Titles:
- Tax Accountant Intermediate
Job Titles:
- Senior Manager - Planning & Analysis
Job Titles:
- Human Resources Officer
- Member of the Finance Lead Team
- Human Resources Officer for the Finance Division, Shared Services Center
- Lead Team
Steve Reck is the human resources officer for the Finance division, Shared Services Center, and several executive offices at the University of Michigan. His responsibilities include classification and compensation, performance management, training and development, institutional equity, employment, and employee relations.
Prior to joining the University of Michigan, Steve served in various human resources and labor relations roles in the automotive industry, for companies such as Ford Motor Company, Visteon Corporation, and most recently the Ford owned Automotive Components Holdings, LLC where he supported the divestiture of several components businesses.
Steve received his bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and earned a master's degree from Michigan State University in labor and industrial relations.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Vice President
- Chief Procurement Officer
- Member of the Finance Lead Team
- Assistant Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer at U - M
- Lead Team
Tally Thrasher is the assistant vice president and chief procurement officer at U-M. In this role, she is responsible for all procurement operations, including strategic sourcing, the procure-to-pay platform, contract administration, procurement systems and software modules, the travel and expense program, the PCard program, and a number of auxiliary operational services.
Job Titles:
- Director of Communications
- Member of the Finance Lead Team
- Director of Communications for the Finance Division at the University
- Lead Team
Tim George is the director of communications for the Finance Division at the University of Michigan. His responsibilities include advancing the organization's initiatives through strategic communications, providing communications counsel and guidance to the organization's senior staff, web development, and oversight of internal communications.
Before joining Finance, he was the director of marketing at M-CARE, U-M's managed care organization. While at M-CARE, he directed the organization's print, radio, and TV advertising campaigns, web development, lead generation efforts, press relations, as well as internal, member, employer, and insurance agent communications. (M-CARE was sold to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.)
He had similar responsibilities as a marketing manager at Health Care Investment Analysts (HCIA), an Ann Arbor-based health care database company that eventually became part of Thomson Reuters. Tim holds a B.A. in journalism and an M.A. in advertising, both from Michigan State University.
Job Titles:
- Business Analyst Lead - Planning & Analysis