As the Director of Finance and Business Operations, my responsibilities include;
- Lead the Finance Office – 3 full time employees to
- Lead the Finance Committee, a Board level committee
- Build the annual operation budget across 7 cost centers. ES. SS. BS. HM, Tech, PD, Library
- Oversee the annual audit process
- Lead the Maintenance Department – 5 full time employees
- Lead the Facilities Committee, a Board level committee
- Build the annual CAPEX budget and work on mid –long range investments and MFP planning
- Lead the Secretariat – 7 full time employees
- Manage the Health & Safety committee, a local Japanese staff member is required to lead this committee
- Manage emergency drills, emergency manual, liaison with RSO and develop risk management strategies
- Ensure security on campus and the schools buses
- Work with the Employee Advisory Committee, a faculty member is required to lead this committee
- Manage school housing 30 owned units, 20 rented
- Represent leadership on the School Advisory Council
- Supervise food service – outsourced
- Supervise bus service
- Supervise theatre operations
- Promotion of the school’s dormitory facility
Over the past five years some of the projects I have successfully completed include;
- Investigated, sourced, procured and managed the implementation of new accounting software
- Moved the school external and internal fiscal years to be in line with local expectations for funding and the school’s calendar year
- Successfully hired replacements for a long term accounting team, all 3 reached retirement age in successive years
- School-wide projector installation, sourced, evaluated, installed and re-evaluated for performance
- Renovation of elementary playing field and playground from dirt to artificial turf – US$850,000 project
- School-wide upgrade of printing facilities to multi-function printers – annual $20,000 cost saving and increased functionality
- Implementation of Faculty and Staff appraisal system utilising research from Charlotte Danielson
- Developed RAMS (Risk Assessment Management System) protocol for all school trips
- Complete update of emergency manual and emergency protocols for all school and dormitory
- Development of a 10 year Master Facility Plan
- Negotiate loans with local banks for capital projects
- Main building air conditioning renovation project, US$2.8 million resulting in annual US$70,000 cost saving on utilities
- Established a competitive bidding process for all projects over US$50,000
- Empowering student-led projects such as the handymen, hangsafe hooks, senior lounge, elementary courtyard, etc
- Partnered with PowWow Japan art and music festival to improve facilities and student learning
- Partnering with Aston Martin to co-celebrate our centennial events
- Obtaining US state department ‘soft target’ grants to improve security on campus
- Installing CCTV all all school buses to increase security
- Campus-wide CCTV upgrade to high definition internal and exterior cameras, a US$300,000 project
- Planning and budgeting a 5 year renewal of gym and work out area to establish CrossFit in the curriculum and benefit faculty
- Renovation of kitchen equipment over 3 years, total spend US$100,000
- Total exterior renovation of the ‘main building’. All tiles covered and resurfaced, window and door frames painted, caulking, expansion joints and roof felt replaced, six-month project with a total spend of US$2.6million
- Sourced, purchased and installed school-wide LCD notice board solution
- In cooperation with the activities department, established a dance studio to encourage dance within the school
- Established “School design” on Pinterest to engage faculty in Master Facility Planning- 42 followers to date
- Sourced and purchased the best campus-wide WIFI access point upgrade. Merged the 2 existing networks into one, increased security across the new single network, defined a parent WIFI are within the network, increased the bandwidth to allow all WIFI enabled devices to connect, not just faculty and student laptops. Reduced the need for 3rd party software. Total spend US$200,000. Annual saving from reduced software needs US$15,000