Distributed August 19, 2002
For Immediate Release

News Service Contact: Mark Nickel



Huidekoper named executive VP for finance and administration

Elizabeth Huidekoper, currently vice president for finance at Harvard University, has been named executive vice president for finance and administration at Brown University. She will begin her service at Brown Oct. 15, 2002, succeeding Donald J. Reaves.


PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Elizabeth Huidekoper, currently vice president for finance at Harvard University, has been named executive vice president for finance and administration at Brown University. Huidekoper will begin her service at Brown Oct. 15, 2002, succeeding Donald J. Reaves.

Huidekoper

“Elizabeth Huidekoper has impressive leadership experience in many important areas, from financial operations to research administration to systems and strategic planning,” said Brown University President Ruth J. Simmons. “I am delighted to welcome her to the senior administration and I look forward to her arrival in the fall.”

As Brown’s executive vice president for finance and administration, Huidekoper will have overall responsibility for the University’s budget and financial planning, human resources, internal auditing, labor relations, police and security, environmental health and safety, insurance and risk, facilities, investments and all business operations. Ellen O’Connor, vice president for finance, has been serving as interim executive vice president since Reaves’ departure and will continue in that capacity until Huidekoper arrives.

As Harvard’s vice president for finance since May 1996, Huidekoper has overseen the financial operations of the university, which involve a staff of 320 and a budget of $30 million. During that time, she developed various financial strategies designed to help the president and provost achieve their strategic objectives and revised the university’s budget and planning processes. She also restructured the internal management of working capital, developed a university debt policy and revised the university’s approach to and management of risk. Working with the vice president for administration, she implemented a new capital planning process.

“Brown University is a terrific institution with visionary leadership,” Huidekoper said. “I look forward to working with Ruth Simmons, with Brown’s talented faculty and extraordinary students, and with the Brown staff and alumni who are ready and willing to be supportive. I am honored that I have been chosen to join the administration.”

Huidekoper has been at Harvard since 1981. Before assuming her current position, she was director of the university’s Office of Budgets and Research Administration (1985-95), associate director in the Office of Budgets (1983-85); and senior financial analyst (1981-83). In 1994, she also served as acting vice president for finance. She led and managed the planning process which resulted in prioritized programs and capital projects and Harvard’s first university-wide fundraising campaign.

Before moving into higher education, Huidekoper was deputy director of the Council for Northeast Economic Action, a nonprofit organization involved in economic development and research projects in New England; and a project manager in the city of Boston’s Office of Management and Budgets. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College and an M.B.A. from Boston University.

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