NIU has named the Illinois Board of Higher Education‘s Alan Phillips its vice president of Administration and Finance.

Phillips will start at NIU on March 1. According to an NIU news release, Phillips was selected during a vice president search “thanks to his proven track record of consistent higher education achievement.”

“We are delighted to have an accomplished higher education finance officer with a strong resource management background to lead NIU’s financial and operational efforts,” Baker said, according to the news release. “Al is a strong collaborator with a track record of effectively directing the academic and business operations for complex academic organizations during challenging fiscal times.”

Phillips is the IBHE executive deputy director. Before that, he was the CFO and vice president of Administrative Services at Kaskaskia College. He is also a Harvard University senior executive fellow.

“It is an exciting time to be at NIU, and with my background and experience, I believe I will be able to help contribute to NIU’s continuing success,” said Phillips, according to the news release.

NIU spokesman Paul Palian said the position, which has been vacant for a year and a half, handles aligning budgetary resources to operational priorities.

“It’s largely handling the university’s financial and budget matters and overseeing that,” said Palian. “So there’s financial strategy and planning, budget development and execution and then also I think there’s gonna be some components on the operations side as well.”

Phillips said because he doesn’t start at NIU for a few months, it’s too early to determine what changes he wants to make. Phillips said his first task is to build relationships with the administrators, staff and faculty to build trust and help move NIU forward.

Phillips also said “…under President Baker’s leadership there are a number of initiatives, there are a number of programs to help move the institution in the direction that it needs to go. As you know, in Illinois there are a number of financial issues across the state that adversely impacts the universities. Enrollments are down, and I’ve had the opportunity to see all of the changes taking place, and I think it moves NIU in the direction it needs to go, while at the same time ensuring that the focus is on student and career success.”

Phillips said he’s excited about the opportunity and becoming a part of the NIU family.