The Phillips Brooks School community inspires students to love learning, to develop a spiritual nature, to communicate effectively, to be kind to others, and to respect the uniqueness of each person. By passionately pursuing core teaching beliefs that set us apart, we create the extraordinary every day at Phillips Brooks School. We guide children to cultivate their individual talents, explore and dig deep while working and reflecting together. Our school operates with strong enrollment and rock-solid financials, with ~300 students, $13M in revenue, $27M in endowment/reserves, and $84M in assets.  

SUMMARY

Reporting to the Head of School, the Director of Finance at Phillips Brooks School is responsible for the overall financial integrity, health, and sustainability of the school. The Director of Finance oversees all aspects of the school’s short-term and long-term financial planning, forecasting, risk management, and accounting operations, ensuring strong financial reporting and accounting. This role is a key liaison to the Board of Trustees, Finance Committee, Audit Committee, and Retirement Investment Committee, and regularly reports to the Board on budget planning, strategic financial modeling, and key finance operational issues. This role manages the Controller, Accounting Associate, and the outsourced HR team.

FINANCIAL LEADERSHIP

●       Maintains strong financial sustainability and the long-term financial health and viability of PBS.

●       Manages the annual budget planning, tracking, and forecasting, as well as longer term (3-to-5 year) strategic financial planning.

●       Maintains strong attention to detail so there is high fidelity and confidence in financial reporting to the Board of Trustees, Head of School, and Leadership Team.

●       Translates the PBS Strategic Plan into actionable financial milestones and achievable goals, then successfully implements the financial deliverables of the Strategic Plan.

●       Effectively communicates with diverse audiences, with great customer service orientation in responding to inquiries from faculty, staff, families, and donors.

●       Drives new revenue initiatives while also finding ways to control expenses to strengthen financial performance.

●       Partners with internal stakeholders on zero-based budget planning so that there is a clear understanding of need and trade-offs: Curriculum, faculty and staff compensation, campus improvements, instructional technology, financial aid program, and more.

●       Fundraising: Manages financial aspects of current Major Gifts Program, actively supports advancement, champions the financing of the new endowment to support faculty-staff salaries and benefits, and ensures donation accounting is accurate and audit-proof.

●       Supervises the effective performance of all general accounting functions, annual audit, internal controls, and the Veracross accounting system.

●       Sets targets for and supervises the accounting team and outsourced Human Resources team.

●       Oversees the Controller in the preparation of timely and detailed reports on financial performance on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis, annual government filings, Form 990, welfare tax exemption forms, etc.

●       Oversees the Controller in preparing all recurring surveys and reports for the school’s trade organizations, e.g., NAIS, NBOA, and Cal-Isboa.

●       Ensures adherence to financial laws and guidelines.

●       Serves on the Retirement Investment Committee

Please see attached complete job description

CONTACT

This retained search is managed by Mary Law Executive Search, the Bay Area leader in placing nonprofit and private school Finance and HR professionals.

Mary Law

Mary Law Executive Search

mary@marylawexecutivesearch.com

925-785-6991