Fernando Alonso, Director of Outreach and Summer Session and Instructor in Mathematics, and Andrea Nix, Director of Finance and Assistant Treasurer, have been selected to become the new Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO), respectively.
Alonso and Nix will replace Stephen Carter, who held both positions simultaneously as Chief Operating and Financial Officer. After 36 years of serving as an administrator, Carter plans to retire next summer.
Carter said in an interview with The Phillipian, “Alonso has done a great job with the Summer Session. He is very knowledgeable about the operation of the school. He understands the academic program very clearly, and the needs of the academic program, as well as the needs of residential life.”
“Nix is very knowledgeable about financial matters across the board. She has been a financial officer before. She knows all financial stuff inside and out. She’s very qualified,” he continued.
In their new roles, Alonso and Nix will be in charge of handling a variety of finance-related projects.
“The two will work together a lot on budget, capital projects, facilities and salaries – all kinds of things where we spend lots of money. Alonso will oversee that, and Nix will do a lot of the behind-the-scenes work to put the pieces together,” said Carter.
Alonso looks forward to shifting responsibilities in his new role as COO and working with new colleagues in several departments, including Human Resources, Finance, Technology and Risk Management.
“I’ve been working with all those folks in my summer role, but this is slightly different because it is relating to the whole school [as opposed to just Summer Session], and so, [I’ll be] getting to work with those colleagues in a different way,” said Alonso.
While Nix and Alonso assume their new positions, Carter reflects on his time at Andover, noting that his favorite part of being Chief Operating and Chief Financial Officer has been looking toward the future in his work with financial modeling and projections.
“I’ve enjoyed the people I’ve gotten to know, particularly on the staff side and the administrative side. I’ve enjoyed being part of interesting things at school, like two capital campaigns. I’ve enjoyed working on facilities projects. The thing I enjoy most about my job is the financial modeling and projecting out into the future and seeing where we are going.” said Carter.
In his time at Andover, Carter has served as a Cluster Dean, Associate Dean of Studies, Scheduling Officer and Dean of Students, prior to becoming Dean of Faculty in 2000. He became CFO in 2004 and took on the additional duties of COO in 2008.
Nix said, “I’m going to miss Carter very much. We’ve talked with Carter everyday since being here. I don’t think a single day has gone by that I haven’t talked to him. His institutional knowledge is deep and wide and his judgement is great…. He’s also a wonderful person, kind and generous.”
Alonso said, “No one has ever been Dean of Students, Dean of Faculty and the CFO and COO of the school. I think that’s a testament to his knowledge of the institution. All of his jobs have had different skill sets. His ability to be able to work with the students, work with the faculty and work with the staff is certainly something we will all miss. I see the next sixth months as an opportunity to talk to him as much as I can and get as much advice as possible.”
The school has reached out to both internal and external candidates and hopes to hire someone to fill Alonso’s position as Director of Outreach and Summer Session by spring. Nix will continue to fulfill her current duties in addition to her new role as CFO.
