Spotlight on Roger Stackpoole
 

Hold the phone!! Stop the presses!! In the midst of writing this Spotlight, the Spotlightee changed jobs. Effective October 16, Roger will become the CFO at LeMoyne College. It will be both a step up and a “step down” – a step up in the position and a step down in his commuting time. As mentioned in the ensuing article, Roger had been commuting from Syracuse to Rochester but his new job will eliminate that trip. Congratulations, Roger, on your return to your alma mater.

Currently Assistant Treasurer and Controller at Rochester Institute of Technology, Roger Stackpoole was born in Syracuse and has lived in that city most of his life, even while working at an array of different colleges in the central New York State area, including his current position. His current commute is a blistering 94 miles each way! The only time in his career not spent in Syracuse was three years when he moved to Canton, NY where he worked at St. Lawrence University. This provided a quick answer to my key question for Roger – “Why was a guy who worked in Rochester co-chair of the Syracuse Area Programming Committee?” Actually, Roger indicated he had first been involved when he was working at Colgate and his boss, Tom O’Neil, was then the chair of that APC.

Graduating from LeMoyne College in 1986, Roger joined the Syracuse office of KPMG, having interned in that office during his senior year in college. While interning, he was assigned to the audit of Colgate, a position he continued when he became a full-time employee. After 3 and a half years, although he expected to be named a manager, Roger felt it was time to move on, realizing he was more interested in line management than continuing in a auditing role and so became Assistant Controller at Colgate and then was promoted to Associate Controller in 1991. During this time, he led their early adoption of SFAS 116 and 117 in 1994. When deciding to leave KPMG, they asked him why he was choosing to go to a field where the financial rewards were clearly not going to be as great as public accounting. Roger told them that there were other important motivators, the sense of being part of an industry that made a difference in people’s lives, a decision he has never regretted.

Roger credits Tom O’Neil with having been a great mentor, teaching him not only how to get things done but also how to work with people. Roger commented that he had entered higher education at an interesting time, just before depreciation accounting became mandatory and just preceding the introduction of FAS 116 and 117, both actions that had a dramatic impact on the accounting practices of the profession. At the same time, technology was increasingly playing a significant role in how the job was accomplished.

After five plus years, Roger then moved on to St. Lawrence University as Controller, recognizing the need to move up the ladder and also realizing that his opportunities at Colgate were limited by the age of those above him. At that time, St. Lawrence was going through a transition period, changing directions in admissions, and needing to upgrade physical facilities. Although he found it a great learning experience, particularly the strength of the senior leadership, ultimately his family wasn’t comfortable living in the North Country and so in January of 1998 they moved back to the Syracuse area as Roger was appointed to Controller for Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY, following the retirement of their controller. Similar to his experience at St. Lawrence, he spent considerable effort in strengthening the organization of Hobart’s student financial services and financial reporting. However, three years later, he was enticed by Peg Ferber to join her at Rochester Institute of Technology. (It should be noted that it wasn’t too much later that Peg departed from RIT to her present position at Nazareth College.)

Actually, Roger was hired to replace Peg, who had been controller but, when she was promoted to assistant vice president, continued to retain the title and responsibilities of the controller’s office. In deciding to accept the RIT position, given the increase in his commuting time, Roger said it was important to him that his opportunity had to be enticing enough to challenge him professionally; it had to be an environment with a personality and culture that he would want to work in. All of his requirements were met. He also mentioned that it was a totally different kind of school, both in size and in mission – much more career-oriented than the small liberal arts institutions in his prior experience and has a significant and growing sponsored research base. Additionally, RIT had a more diverse portfolio of offerings ranging from certificate programs to (now) four Ph.D. programs, a lesser percentage of students housed on campus than his previous schools, and a substantially larger endowment, and yet, relatively speaking, had less diversification of revenues given their resources per student and lower level of alumni support. Interestingly, the institution has an effort underway to have a developer come in and build a “college town”, with retail, restaurants, and housing (available to the local community and students) to provide additional opportunities for the region and for an improved campus life for RIT’s students. Roger mentioned that they had looked closely at other similar projects including the University of Pennsylvania’s efforts in changing the nature of the surrounding neighborhood.

Roger stated that RIT had exceeded his expectations in the five years he has been there, including the opportunity to receive exceptional mentorship from Peg Ferber and Dr. James Watters (RIT’s CFO). We discussed many of the special programs – micro engineering, photography, imaging science, packaging science, and the Center for Integrated Manufacturing Studies (CIMS) that have brought distinction to the school, both nationally and globally.

Roger attributes Tom O’Neil from his Colgate days for getting him involved in Association activities. Currently he is chairman of the EACUBO Large Institutions Committee, the co-chair of the Syracuse Area Programming Committee, and member of the Rochester APC. He was recently appointed to Vice Chair of the Annual Program Committee, beginning in 2006-2007. We talked about the effort necessary to make the Large Institutions Committee keep going on the same level that was achieved over the past few years (i.e., “Ken Cody left big shoes to fill”). Roger’s attitude on professional development has always been to work with people to find out what their needs are, what they want rather than dictating from the top. He commented that his greatest satisfaction has been helping others, whether it was someone on his staff or the person above him. In addition to his EACUBO roles, he is currently serving on the NACUBO Accounting Principles Council Project Group charged with working on financial reporting inconsistencies in higher education. More recently, he has been appointed to a 3-year term on the Annual Program Committee, as Vice Chair in 2006-2007, then Chair the following year.

I asked Roger why he chose to leave RIT and take his new position at Le Moyne and the following is his response.

“The position of Vice President for Finance and Administration and Treasurer of Le Moyne College provides me with the opportunity to expand my portfolio and further develop my skills set. In this senior leadership position I will have responsibility for finance, general accounting areas, risk management, endowment stewardship, purchasing, facilities, and human resources. In addition to the professional growth opportunities, Le Moyne is my alma mater and is in my hometown, where I still live (yes, 94 miles away from the RIT campus). So this is a position tailor-made for me, and I am honored to have been selected by Le Moyne to fill this important role and to help them execute their multidimensional strategic and facilities master plans, to continue to meet their promises to their stakeholders, and to achieve new levels of academic and administrative excellence. As President Beirne stated, “Le Moyne is a college on the move..."

The place is rich with a passionate faculty, a passionate staff, and a very intelligent student body. Combine these resources with the College's strong balance sheet and its disciplined financial management, and it is clear to see that Le Moyne is staged well to achieve new heights in academic, administrative and student development excellence. I am joining the Le Moyne community at a very important time in their history as they look to grow enrollment, develop new programs, and execute their facilities master plan.

Of course this transition is bittersweet as I have had an outstanding experience at RIT these past 5 1/2 years, making many new friends and working with an incredibly talented team; leaving RIT is indeed very difficult.”

We wish Roger much success in his new endeavor.