Doing something big at small PC

FULLY COMMITTED: John Sweeney, Providence College's CFO, meeting here with Kristine Goodwin, the vice president of student affairs, loves to solve problems for an institution at which his faith and values "tie so closely to the purpose of the institution." / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
FULLY COMMITTED: John Sweeney, Providence College's CFO, meeting here with Kristine Goodwin, the vice president of student affairs, loves to solve problems for an institution at which his faith and values "tie so closely to the purpose of the institution." / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

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John Sweeney, senior vice president and chief financial officer at Providence College, grew up in the small town of Bozrah, Conn. The sixth of seven children, he was raised by caring parents and a strong support system of relatives, friends and neighbors.

“I was brought up in a family and a community where hard work was the norm,” Sweeney said. “I believe very much in hard work and full commitment.”

Although his hometown might not have been huge, Sweeney always wanted to do something that would make a real difference in the lives of others.

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Working for a mom-and-pop grocery store during his high school and college years, he learned not only about business and dealing with people, but how hard it is to make a business successful.

“I developed an interest and respect for people who ran businesses,” he said. “I realized that business was the direction in which I wanted to go.”

While working toward his MBA from the University of Connecticut in the late ’80s, Sweeney was offered a job in the valuation wing of a large Manhattan accounting firm.

“After failing to find a decent apartment and realizing that for a guy growing up in a town of 2,000 people and 2 million chickens, maybe Manhattan wasn’t the right place,” he said, “I took another offer in Hartford, working on the state budget.”

After working on welfare and health care policy in the Connecticut state budget office for six years, Sweeney was offered the chance to oversee budgets for UConn, the UConn Health Center, and soon thereafter the four Connecticut state universities.

“I was given great access to the leadership at the institutions and allowed to be a part of so many major decisions,” Sweeney said. “But I realized that I wanted … to work at actually creating the change on campus – to work at the micro as well as the macro level.”

David Carter, then president at Eastern Connecticut State University, asked Sweeney to join his team as the associate vice president for finance and administration in 2000. Sweeney accepted and worked closely with Carter (and his successor Elsa Núñez) over the next 10 years to transform the school physically, programmatically and financially.

Since joining PC in 2010, Sweeney’s work has been focused on several areas, including:

n Finishing the campus transformation: An ambitious project that includes connecting the lower and upper campus, opening the new Ryan Center for Business Studies, renovating and expanding the Albertus Magnus Science Complex, completing the Friar Development Center, and several other smaller projects.

n Endowment growth: Working to implement a trustee-endorsed plan to grow the college’s endowment, reducing its dependency on student fees.

n Financial planning: Continuing to refine the multiyear financial model to help ensure the long-term strength of the college.

When Sweeney arrived, the college’s endowment stood at $136 million. By the end of last year, its value was nearly $200 million. At the same time, the college’s institutional financial aid increased from just over $43 million to nearly $70 million for fiscal 2016, a 62 percent increase.

Rev. Kenneth Sicard, the college’s treasurer, says Sweeney’s leadership has moved the college to a better position to succeed in the increasingly competitive higher education environment.

“He’s developed and overseen an aggressive capital improvement program; maximized PC’s financial flexibility through strategic use of our assets and balance sheet; worked with our investment committee to engineer strong returns and growth in our endowment; and improved college relations with our surrounding neighborhoods,” Sicard said.

Sicard says Sweeney’s commitment to the college and its mission is all-encompassing, extending to the school’s 850 faculty and staff as well as its nearly 5,000 students.

“Because I have such confidence in John’s abilities, I know that I can rely on him completely,” Sicard said. “He … has, in many ways, been instrumental in bringing Providence College to a new level of excellence.”

For Sweeney, the work truly is a labor of love, and there is no place he’d rather be.

“I can look out at my window and see a statue of St. Martin De Porres,” the Dominican saint of racial harmony, Sweeney said. “It is OK at PC to take a break in the midst of busy day and spend a few prayerful minutes in the chapel. It tends to put things in perspective.”

“I love to solve problems. I love doing it at a place where my personal faith and values tie so closely to the purpose of the institution,” he said. •

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