As the kids say these days, it’s been a minute. I have learned this means it’s actually been much longer than a minute. For me, it’s been just over 14 months since I joined Mendoza.
I’m grateful for the past year working alongside many of you in the College. I have learned so much and continue to grow in my understanding and appreciation of our important work. And, wow, can we work! The list of accomplishments from this past year is a powerful display of productivity across the College.
Last year’s priorities, as I shared in my first Exchange entry, highlighted three areas of focus and I’m pleased to share that we made significant strides in each. Just to mention a few:
- Strategic Planning. We launched our new Mission, Vision & Goals
- Matrix Management. We evolved both our structure and the ways we work. (More on this below.
- Student Journey. We elevated the orientation, registration and commencement experiences while enhancing facilities for all our programs and started in earnest to build out the MBA Pathways.
And yet, there is also still much left to do. But before I jump to this year, I believe it’s important to acknowledge some changes that occurred recently. The Marketing & Admissions teams joined the team-of-teams we call the Mendoza Experience & Engagement Team (MEET). This group of staff are led by nine high-performing, experienced and collaborative functional directors (in photo order left to right, top to bottom):
- Ryan Retartha - Alumni Relations
- John Rooney - Career Development & Content Marketing
- Megan Piersma - Experiential Learning
- Morgan McCoy - Facilities & Program Operations
- Tracy Biggs - Finance
- Chris Fruehwirth - Information Technology
- Brian Connelly - Marketing
- Maria Stutsman y Marquez - Admissions
- Christine Gramhofer - Student Services
Collectively, and in close partnership with Kara Palmer and Carol Elliott’s teams, this group of leaders is responsible for the experience that our students, faculty and staff realize daily.
Dean Cremers is putting a special emphasis on the alignment of our OKRAs coming out of the strategic planning process and that’s leading to greater alignment across the College. I’m giving special attention to ensure my priorities mesh well with those of Kara Palmer, Craig Crossland, Kristen Collett-Schmitt and Ken Kelley. While I note these as my priorities, below, I share significant portions of them with Kara, Craig, Kristen and Ken and I will be contributing to their priorities as well.
My renewed priorities in the coming year are:
- Organization: The functional directors and I will continue to shape a cohesive, inclusive and service-minded Mendoza Experience & Engagement Team while Craig, Kristen and I support the academic and functional leaders in delivering on each program’s promise to its students through our staff.
- Operational & Financial Excellence: We have ambitious goals across our programs and functions. We will need to execute exceptionally well and with renewed discipline in order to achieve them within the budgets that we’ve set for ourselves.
- Strategic Planning, Continued: Now that we have a College plan that charts our path for the next five years, we will be driving the identification of key performance measures while we will build out the supporting functional, program and initiative plans, including a facilities master plan, a long range financial plan, etc.
As you might imagine, there’s actually quite a bit of detailed work planned across the College so we will be sharing those plans and updates throughout the year.
Also, today, Amanda Rink and I welcome Emily Marrese to Mendoza as our newest teammate and Senior Administrative Assistant. Emily comes to us from the Provost Office with over 12 years of experience at Notre Dame. Emily will sit directly across from me in the Dean’s suite. Please reach out to Emily (epaul1@nd.edu) to welcome her as well as to find some time on my calendar if you would like to connect with me on anything.
Gratefully,
Rob