The following email was sent out on behalf of Michael Shakespeare, Associate Vice-President Administration and Finance on December 18, 2012 to the ‘Heads Up’ distribution list:
Please distribute widely within your faculty / departments as appropriate.
Over the past seven years UBC’s Okanagan campus has undergone tremendous growth, and many of our internal administrative services have been faced with increasing demands and changes. Infrastructure, resources and processes that met our needs in the past, may no longer be effective for the current demands. One such area facing growing demands is finance. We have identified an opportunity to review our current financial resources throughout the campus, the structure, business processes and functionality of connections and relationships to determine how to best support the future needs of UBC’s Okanagan campus.
Some of the key areas of opportunity include:
- An imperative to provide information to support strategic, forward planning
- Identification of richer professional opportunities for our finance professionals through mentoring, talent development, career laddering, mobility, consistent feedback and right-sizing of positions
- Implementation of best financial management practices across all administrative areas and to better manage risk through financial discipline and clarity
- Streamlining of our administrative processes to make our organization more effective and make processes easier for students, faculty and staff
To help us think through a sustainable structure for our financial services functions across the campus, I will be initiating an external review beginning early in the new year to be led by MMK Consulting, an independent management consulting firm that has performed many consulting assignments for UBC over the past decade. For example, MMK assisted Athletics and Recreation on UBC’s Okanagan campus in developing its initial business plan in 2008, and also recently assisted in updating the plan to 2012. MMK has also performed numerous organizational and business planning assignments at UBC’s Vancouver campus, on behalf of Finance and Administration, Treasury, Athletics, and many other faculties and departments. MMK’s role in this new project will be led by Stuart MacKay, President, and Treena Cook, Project Manager, both of whom have extensive experience in providing management consulting services to UBC.
Your input will be incredibly important to the success of this initiative and I encourage you to participate. Further details regarding the process will be available in early January.
Michael Shakespeare | Associate Vice-President | Administration and Finance