Dear Colleagues:
I am pleased to share with you that Andrew Brannen will soon join Monmouth University as the new Vice President and Chief Business Officer. His appointment concludes a comprehensive national search process that resulted in more than 70 applicants.
Since 2017, Andrew has worked in various senior administrative roles at Kean University in Union, New Jersey. He first joined Kean as the Vice President for Administration and Finance, was later promoted to the Senior Vice President for Finance, and most recently served as the Chief Financial Officer. As CFO, he has been responsible for oversight of the following areas: budget, human resources, information technology, finance, student accounting, financial planning and analysis, procurement, business services, and in recent months facilities. During his tenure at Kean, Andrew served an extensive stint as the Acting Executive Vice-Chancellor at Wenzhou Kean University in Wenzhou, China, and has also served as an adjunct faculty member at the College of Business and Public Management.
Kean employs more than 2,000 full and part-time faculty and staff, has a combined undergraduate and graduate enrollment of over 15,000 students, and offers more than 120 programs at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels. Kean recently received designation as an R2 Research University by the Carnegie Classification, and has earned distinction of being both a First-Gen Forward Institution and a Hispanic-Serving Institution. And, more than half of Kean students are Pell Grant-eligible.
Prior to working in higher education, Andrew spent nearly two decades as a city administrator in various municipalities, most recently for the neighboring Township of Ocean. Andrew earned an M.B.A. degree from the University of Illinois, an M.P.A. degree from The Ohio State University, and a B.A. degree in government from the University of Notre Dame.
He is acutely aware of the current higher education landscape in America, particularly in New Jersey. His expansive role as CFO at Kean University, coupled with his familiarity with Monmouth County and New Jersey, position him well for success as the Vice President and Chief Business Officer at Monmouth University.
Andrew will begin his new position at Monmouth in mid-July, and will have ample opportunities to meet members from across the university community in the ensuing months. I look forward to introducing Andrew to all of you more formally over the summer.
I am grateful to the members of the search committee who worked diligently over the past several months to help narrow a deep and competitive applicant pool. Please join me in thanking Mary Byrne, Dr. Matt Harmon, Dr. Bob McCaig, Emily Miller-Gonzalez, Tim Rehm, Lu-Ann Russell, and John Sonn both for serving in this capacity and for representing the university community so well during the course of this search.
Please join me in congratulating Andrew Brannen on his new role, and in welcoming him to Monmouth University.
Sincerely,
Pat
Dr. Patrick F. Leahy
President