Leadership Throughout the Business Office

The independent school CFO oversees an enormous set of operational responsibilities: facilities, technology, HR and, of course, finance. The business officer’s job becomes more complex every day, as they try to stay ahead of everything from compliance to risk mitigation to artificial intelligence. 

It’s OK to ask for help – and the good news is that help is readily available in an independent school’s controller and HR director, should the business office have the resources to staff it that way. If your business office is small, I hope you feel comfortable turning to your peers at NBOA!  

The question is whether CFOs and school leaders as a whole are recognizing the potential of controllers and HR directors, and creating space for them to engage meaningfully in business leadership. I took the opportunity to put that question to individuals in these roles who are especially active within the NBOA community.  

Strategic Middle Ground 

The Kinkaid School in Houston is embracing the controller and HR director leadership evolution. Marlon Bernard’s title – director of finance and controller – tells that story.  

For Bernard, the evolution represents structural rather than symbolic change. “The CFO operates as the institution’s chief strategist,” Bernard said. “They’re thinking about sustainability, risk, governance and where the school needs to be in five or 10 years. That naturally changes the controller’s role.” The controller becomes the financial leader responsible for executing that strategy – translating it into models, controls, systems and decisions that work in the real world. Or as Bernard puts it, “If the CFO is designing the architecture, the controller is making sure the structure holds.” 

Bobbi Elliott sees the same trend. She’s been a controller at Pembroke Hill School in Kansas City, Missouri, for more than 20 years and has devoted the last three years to serving on and leading NBOA’s Controllers Council. "People that have the title controller or perhaps director of finance are stepping more into business leadership," she observed. "They're trying to get out of being immersed in the numbers all the time and striving to bring new things into the business office. They’re asking, What are best practices? What more can we be doing? What software should we be using?" 

Controllers know the details and they can support the CFO by providing not just data but commentary to go with it.

Controllers increasingly help bridge the space that Bernard described, which Elliott calls a middle management position. "Controllers know the details and they can support the CFO by providing not just data but commentary to go with it,” she told me. 

The HR Evolution 

The same shift toward impactful business leadership is taking place in independent school human resources departments. Dawn Lewis is the chief people officer for the Shelton School in Dallas, the world’s largest independent school for students with learning differences. When she started her HR career in 2012, it was “very, very uncommon” for an independent school to have a dedicated HR department. HR duties, predictably, fell on the business officer.  

Today, faced with the challenges of risk mitigation, shifting labor regulations and benefits management, most schools have recognized the need for skilled “people operations” experts. At Shelton, Lewis holds a seat on the executive leadership team.  

Most telling is her deep integration with the business office on strategic financial matters. “Everything the ‘people ops’ department does has a financial impact, whether it’s compensation and benefits, or hiring or other employee matters.” Lewis and her payroll and benefits manager work alongside the CFO in making those decisions. The perspective sharing flows both ways. "The CFO comes to me for information on the employee side, whether it's workers comp, health insurance or liability insurance, to ask, ‘What do you think about this? How will it work?’" 

HR as Risk Management Partner 

Angela Oliver has a unique perspective on the evolving roles of both HR directors and controllers. She spent six years in Southern California as Sage Hill School’s controller, from 2001 to 2007, while the CFO handled salaries, leave and benefits alongside financial duties. “It was just too much for the CFO to take on all of that risk,” she recalled. Her school asked her to take on the HR role in 2008 to help spread the workload – and the risk. 

Oliver oversees what she identifies as independent schools' biggest operational challenge: managing personnel risk. "The legalities of personnel issues and risk have increased immensely," Oliver said. Legal leaves, compensation philosophy, wellness programs — the scope of work has multiplied. 

Lewis focuses on three critical risk mitigation areas. First is the recruiting and hiring process – “making sure that we have very structured practices and processes in place, from the recruiting to the interviewing to the background checks." Second, she and her staff serve as the first line of response for employee injuries, and third, as the go-to for compliance training related to student and employee protection, labor regulations and other topics.  

It's knowing that we are being consistent in our practices and that someone's not out there just making exceptions for somebody, which could create a discriminatory situation.

Lewis acknowledges that "it's not the norm" for HR to sit on the leadership or administrative team in many independent schools. In Shelton’s case, it ensures “we're being fair and equitable in all our practices and processes," she said. When she sits in division head meetings, she hears about situations that might not reach her otherwise. "It's knowing that we are being consistent in our practices and that someone's not out there just making exceptions for somebody, which could create a discriminatory situation." 

The Keystone of Trust 

Titles matter, but the relationships controllers and HR directors form across the business office determine their effectiveness. Central to controller-CFO partnership is what Bernard calls "vulnerability-based trust.” “The controller must be willing to say, ‘I see a problem,’ or ‘I missed something,’ without hesitation,” Bernard said. “That’s how risk gets managed early.” Shared priorities and constant communication are also critical. “You can’t execute strategy without that level of alignment underneath it.” 

Elliott experienced this firsthand during a transition to a new CFO who came from the for-profit world. She drew on her two decades-plus of institutional knowledge to assist the CFO with the nuances of nonprofit accounting and independent school culture. 

Space to Lead 

Controllers' ability to step into leadership depends on institutional support. "Part of that also has to do with how your administrative team views the controller," Elliott noted. "I feel like they've given me flexibility and room here." 

Bernard’s advice for controllers? Be a problem solver. “If your mindset is just to close the books, you stay in a narrow lane. If your instinct is to ask why something is happening and how to fix it, that’s when you start operating as a business leader.” On the school’s side, leadership needs to recognize that the controller/leader is someone “who can make things happen.”  

HR directors who want to enhance their leadership profile should pursue well-rounded experience across all HR facets, as Lewis sees it. Professional certification in HR provides a foundation, and she also earned a master’s degree in jurisprudence, specializing in labor and employment law to expand her knowledge.  

As these conversations showed, an independent school controller and HR director may be reservoirs of business leadership and strategic insights that can help schools, and school leaders, navigate the increasingly complex landscape of PK-12 independent education while keeping mission at the center. My message: start tapping the true potential of these business leadership roles. 

Jeffrey Shields, FASAE, CAE

NBOA President and CEO

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