Karen Leach, former chief information officer at Colgate University, has been named vice president for administration and finance at Hamilton College. The appointment was effective August 1.
"Karen Leach possesses the strong financial, managerial and communication skills that will make her an effective administrator and a valued colleague at Hamilton," said President Eugene M. Tobin. " She is a creative and collaborative campus leader who understands and appreciates Hamilton's distinctive liberal arts mission. I am delighted we have attracted to our community such a well-qualified and consummate professional."
Leach assumes the position held previously by Daniel J. O'Leary, who will become Hamilton's vice president for investments, a new position created by Tobin to focus on the college's strategic investments, including the $475 million endowment.
"While it is terribly difficult to leave Colgate after 15 years of wonderful experiences," Leach said, "I am thrilled at this opportunity to join the Hamilton College community in a position that speaks to my strengths and will allow me to return to my roots of financial and business management. I look forward to new projects, new alliances and employing my skills in wide-reaching ways at a new campus.
As chief information officer at Colgate, Leach oversaw the merger of Academic Computing, Administrative Computing and Media Services into a single division with 32 people and a budget that currently exceeds $5 million. Prior to that appointment in 1995, she was associate provost and chief information officer from 1993-95, associate provost from 1987-93 and assistant provost from 1985-87.
In her capacity with the provost's office, Leach had responsibility for developing and overseeing the budget for all academic departments, academic support programs, athletics and the library. She was a key member of the core team at the university charged with bringing the final budget into balance and preparing documents for approval by the Colgate Board of Trustees.
Leach's broad responsibility for academic resource coordination and allocation included budget and financial management, facilities development, compensation and benefits analysis and planning, gift and grant administration, summer operations, audiovisual services and academic computing, and hazardous materials management. She also served as a liaison to the technical and support staff, compliance officer for Title IX, staff affirmative action officer, and was chair of the campus effort for facilities planning to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
"Karen's broad fiscal and management experience at the college level will make her a tremendous asset at Hamilton," Tobin said.
Prior to her arrival at Colgate in 1985, Leach was an operations analyst and project leader for a group that designed and implemented plans to improve productivity, increase efficiency and ensure financial control for Bristol Myers Inc. sites in Syracuse and Puerto Rico.
Leach is a member of the Board of Directors of the Consortium of Liberal Arts Colleges, and is co-founder, with Hamilton's David Smallen, of the COSTS Project, an international effort to collect and analyze expenditures on information technology services in higher education.
A 1978 graduate of Vassar College, Leach received her MBA from Syracuse University in 1987. She and her family live on a small cooperative farm in Munnsville.
