Retirement of Bruce Fehn and Reorganization of Administrative Services
November 17, 2015
Members of the Rutgers Community:
After 29 years of service, Senior Vice President for Administration Bruce C. Fehn has announced his plans to retire. It is with mixed emotions that I congratulate Bruce on his retirement, and I know you join me in wishing him well.
Since coming to Rutgers in 1986, Bruce has made significant contributions to the University’s financial and administrative services during his tenure as university controller, associate vice president for finance, and senior vice president for finance and administration, managing and administering a $600 million investment portfolio, $1.7 billion in construction projects, and a university budget of $2.4 billion. Most recently, Bruce has served as senior vice president for administration with oversight of the broader and more complex system-wide administrative operations of the newly integrated Rutgers.
With skill and grace, Bruce has played a critical role in budget management, capital planning, and financing and debt management. He has been a trusted resource for our governing boards, serving with distinction on the audit committee, the finance and facilities committee, and the investment committee. Bruce played an invaluable role in the integration process, leading the complex and highly successful effort to refinance the UMDNJ debt assigned to Rutgers, University Hospital, and Rowan University. As a senior administrator, he has also provided strong support and recognition to those who report to him.
I applaud Bruce for all his accomplishments. His institutional and technical knowledge and invaluable counsel will leave a gap difficult to fill.
In anticipation of Bruce’s retirement, we have been working through the restructuring of central administrative services in order to continue advancing our strategic priorities by providing best-practice systems and organizations, reducing administrative costs, and fostering a more efficient and effective infrastructure.
To this end, effective January 1, 2016 there will be one consolidated and integrated institutional planning and operations division that will bring together planning and transportation, facilities operations and construction, public safety and emergency management, and the majority of our auxiliary enterprises. This consolidation is expected to create efficiencies in service delivery and optimal effectiveness in resource utilization, benefiting the university community as a whole. I am appointing Tony Calcado to lead this division as Senior Vice President for Institutional Planning and Operations reporting directly to me.
At the same time, Michael Gower will assume the role of Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration, in recognition of his expanded role with oversight of all system-wide Enterprise Resource Planning systems upgrades, refreshes, and implementations, as well as all central administrative services, business process reviews, and efficiency and streamlining initiatives.
Finally, in recognition of the work already in progress under the business process reviews and other institutional effectiveness initiatives, University Human Resources will report to Michael Gower and have an expanded role in organizational effectiveness. Vivian Fernandez will serve as Senior Vice President for Human Resources and Organizational Effectiveness.
I am confident that these changes to our organizational structure will serve Rutgers well, and I look forward to working with Tony, Mike, and Vivian and their teams as we continue to pursue the ambitious agenda outlined in our University Strategic Plan.
Sincerely,
Robert Barchi