Issue date: 12/11/08 Section: News

Paul McCann, director of business services and treasurer, was named interim vice president for business affairs on Dec. 2 and will take over after Jeff Cooley retires on Dec. 31, 2008. (Eric Hiltner/The Daily Eastern News)

The potential budget reserve or reduction.

The Campus Master Plan update.

The power plant project.

The effect of the state's economic situation on Eastern.

These are just a few of the issues Paul McCann will face when he becomes interim vice president for business affairs.

Jeff Cooley, current vice president for business affairs, retires on Dec. 31, 2008.

McCann, director of business services, will become interim on Jan. 1.

"I think Paul is certainly up to the challenge," Cooley said.

He said it's the day-to-day opportunities that come up that McCann will have to deal with.

"The budget is certainly going to be something that's going to occupy his time," Cooley said.

He said McCann would have to try to manage a possible reserve or reduction, as well as also look forward to 2010 and the implications from the state's economic situation.

Cooley said the Master Plan update would begin soon, which is an important process for the university that McCann will be actively engaged in.

He said McCann would also have a hand in the power plant project as it continues to move forward.


Years of experience

McCann said would be a good challenge for him to expand what he has seen before and the management experiences he has had in previous jobs.

McCann began his career in public accounting and worked in the field for 25 years.

He did a lot of governmental and college auditing through the state auditor general's program, which is how he came to work with Eastern.

The local firm McCann was working for, Murphey, Jenne and Jones, was hired to conduct an audit for Eastern around 1981 or 1982.

"Then I was here for roughly 12 to 15 years doing the audit, so it has been a campus, an institution I have come to know from the audit's perspective," McCann said.

He said he always enjoyed coming to Charleston and dealing with the people when he was here.

"I always thought at some point it might be a good possibility or a good idea to come back here and look for a job, but never really thought that that was going to be the case just because of public accounting," McCann said.

He said the goal with most certified public accountants is to become a partner in a firm and then "grow old and retire."

That did not happen for McCann when Murphey, Jenne and Jones sold the company.

The company Main Hurdman bought the company, and was then purchased by Peat Marwick, a large international CPA firm.

"Well, I changed names three times and never left the same desk," McCann said. "It was one of those things that the current world economy creates where your things are purchased out from under you, you change names, but you keep going on. You still do the same thing."

McCann then ended up in the Quad Cities working on colleges and universities for Peat Marwick.

"I was up there for about four or five years and decided that the world of big time accounting, the big four, was not really what I wanted to do," McCann said. "I wanted to get back down to where I was comfortable with smaller institutions with smaller accounting firms."

McCann then came back to auditing Eastern through Doehring Winders and Company, a Mattoon-based firm.

He then decided to make a switch to a large insurance agency and was chief financial officer for Behnke and Company in Decatur.

After the owner passed away, McCann parted ways with the insurance agency.

"But I learned a lot there from the standpoint of customer service," McCann said. "When you're in that type of business, you learn a lot about customer service and how you deal with people and the problems that they actually have."

He said dealing with people and real-life problems and issues was enlightening and helped move his career away from the public accounting area and into a more customer service angle.

After leaving Behnke and Company, McCann went into public accounting for himself for a while.


Business services

When the director of business services position came available, McCann applied and was hired in June of 2006.

He worked in public accounting for about 25 years, then with an insurance agency for about five years and has been in his current position for two and a half years.

"With (a payroll) background and my accounting background, it made a lot of sense to come into the environment here at Eastern where I was working with the auditors, working with the accountants, putting together financial statements, doing payroll, taking care of benefits for the employees," McCann said. "It was really a pretty good match."

One of McCann's biggest successes since coming to Eastern is the conversion of payroll to the current Banner system. The old computer program that was used was dated back to the early 1980s and had never been modified before.

"With the dedication of the staff and hopefully some input from me we were able to get those changes made to move over to Banner," McCann said.

As business services director, McCann has also been active in the proposed power plant.

"We spent a considerable amount of time analyzing the power plant and trying to figure out financing for it and trying to get it to move forward," he said.


On to being interim

Now, McCann will become interim vice president for business affairs.

"Certainly, this is going to be the largest environment that I've been in, but it doesn't really scare me from the standpoint of what has to be done," McCann said. "I've had a great teacher in Jeff Cooley. He's shown me a lot of how the university works … I think that he's shown me a lot in what needs to be done around the campus and how to deal with many of the issues."

McCann said the interim position would last probably between two to four months.

"As a practical matter, there's probably not a whole lot I can instigate and get done in that period of time," he said.

One of his goals is to continue to move forward on the Renewable Energy Center.

Another thing he wants to see continued is the customer service initiative.

"I want to make sure that people don't think of the business affairs area just as accountants or just as payroll processors," he said. "I want to make sure that we are providing service to the campus and to the constituencies."

Particularly with the recent budget issue, McCann said it is important to make sure there is a good understanding of how various costs are allocated.

"We've got to address some of those issues," he said. "We've got to talk to the various people on campus and make sure that they're aware of what the effects of the budget issues that come down from Springfield are."

McCann said the budget would be a priority of the office in the near future and the office must communicate with the campus about it.

"We can't just dictate from Old Main up on high what's going to happen," McCann said. "We've got to work through this and understand the plight that gets passed down to everyone on campus. What's the effect of losing a million dollars? Are there fewer classes, fewer sections of a class? Do we need to reduce some overhead from an administrative standpoint? What are the issues that we can deal with to try to make the loss of some funding as painless as we possibly can?"


More than one hat

McCann will be holding more than one position for a while.

McCann's duties as director of business services will continue when he becomes interim vice president.

Cooley said McCann does not mind spending the hours that are needed in order to get the job done.

"So I think that's something that will serve him well as he's going to be wearing more than one hat here for awhile," Cooley said.

McCann said he plans to hopefully before the first of the year announce some interim positions.

On top of McCann's transfer to interim, the business office also lost Larry Cannon, director of accounting and two assistant controllers.

"We're losing a lot of experience within the business area, so we're going to have to make some interim appointments, and then start our search process for all of those positions," he said. "Exactly how we do it, we haven't decided yet."


Strong work ethic

Cooley said he has known McCann for "many, many, many years." Cooley said he has known McCann since they did public accounting together. He said he knew McCann from his work on the audit for the university.

"I think Paul is very detail-oriented and one of the things that I appreciate about Paul is the thoroughness at which he performs his duties," Cooley said. "I think that he is very diligent in fulfilling his duties. I appreciate his work ethic."

Cooley said McCann is dedicated to his job and the institution and is very knowledgeable of the accounting aspects of business operations necessary to perform his role.

"I think also more important than the technical aspects are the personality traits that Paul has," Cooley said. "I think he has wonderful ability to work with people and various constituency groups. I think that his ability to work with people is as important or more important than a lot of his technical abilities."

Linda Holloway, assistant director of payroll/benefits, has worked with McCann since he came to Eastern about three years ago. She said she has a great working relationship with McCann.

"Paul has a very open door style of management," she said. "He's very personable and yet professional in everything he does. His accounting and audit background brings a conciseness to the work he does and the work he expects out of others."

Holloway said she is confident with McCann becoming interim.

"I thought with the state economics in the condition it is in, and especially not knowing how the governor's decisions will affect EIU, this decision brings the necessary continuity to the Business Affairs area," she said. "Paul has worked very closely with Mr. Cooley, and therefore I feel confident the transition will go smoothly and business will go on as usual. I think that is important for EIU right now."


Emily Zulz can be reached at 581-7942 or at eazulz@eiu.edu.

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