Meet Rahfat Hussain
As the new Finance Operations (FinOps) Director, Rahfat brings both knowledge and experience within the University of Minnesota. Over the last fifteen years he has worked with the College of Pharmacy, College of Liberal Arts, Office of the Provost, and School of Dentistry. He has served as a senior accountant, finance manager, finance analyst, and most recently as the chief financial officer for the College of Pharmacy.
Rahfat’s senior executive leadership experience in higher education has prepared him to offer service excellence system wide as the new FinOps Director. His passion for organizational behavior and management efficiency coupled with his problem solving enthusiasm and his pursuit of continuous improvement to add value to the institution make him a good fit for the FinOps Center.
Q & A with Rahfat
To learn more about the leadership style and get to know Rahfat a bit more, we talked with him about his new role and recent campus meetings. We asked about the new Operations Center and a few other things to get a feel for his management style and the road ahead for staffing.
Q: What do you envision for the new Finance Operations Center?
A: I imagine the FinOps Center to be a center of excellence serving our entire University community in an efficient and timely manner. I want the FinOps Center to be the first call (or email) when colleagues have a need or are trying to solve a problem. While we may not have all the answers I expect and promise that we would help find a solution.
Q: What opportunities are you offering to staff that they don’t have now?
A: The FinOps center offers a solid and clear career path in Finance and Accounting. We deliberately designed the FinOps Center with positions starting as an executive accounts specialist and progressing from there to a finance professional or even finance manager. As we serve more and more departments, and colleges, we will have a need for more finance professionals and I anticipate that there will be no shortage of opportunities for those who aspire for a career in finance.
Q: What’s your leadership style?
A: I love to collaborate with my colleagues across the organization because I believe this is the only way to learn as much as possible from a wide variety of people. I always treat all my colleagues with respect and have an open mindset to learn from each other. All of us have different views and I believe that difference in opinion is a valuable learning opportunity when I work with my team.
Q: How did your career lead you where you are today?
A: I think curiosity and mindset to learn as much as possible led to my seven different roles at the University over the last fifteen years. I was curious about other organizations within our University and how they operated and worked with others in the general University community. Having a passion for solving problems also led me to ask all sorts of questions and widen my professional network within the University community.
Q: What is the biggest challenge you are trying to solve currently in your new role?
A: Currently, building an effective team from the ground up is my greatest professional challenge. I have to try and imagine the FinOps Center five years from now as it hums along serving the University community. I have to imagine working with my colleagues and my team and I have to imagine and anticipate future challenges in our work and our changing environment at the University.
Q: How do you envision the culture will work to help keep staff connected to both their campus or college and with their new team in the Operations CenterTeam?
A: Building an effective is challenging especially in the post pandemic world where most of us are scattered in different locations. However, this also affords us the opportunity to leverage technology to bridge the physical distance between us and that is what I hope to do with all of us. On a frequent basis, I want all of us to come together to celebrate our achievements and share stories with each other - I think that would go a long way to build a strong bond between us as a team and with our colleges and campuses that we serve.
Q: What do you like to do when you are not building a FinOps Center?
A: I love to spend every free minute with my family. To me, there is nothing more precious and the cliche, life is short, is indeed very true. I love to watch my two young children grow everyday and I especially love to share in their wonders as they discover the world one day at a time.