Connor Associates Chosen For Business Office Assessment and Search for Hackley School, NY
Connor Associates' President Mike Connor is pleased to announce that the prestigious Hackley School in New York selected Connor Associates for the School’s 2020-2021 Business Operations audit. Hackley School is proactively assessing its Business Office and related financial operations in advance of placing a new finance leader next summer.
Leading the audit, which was completed in early February 2021, was Finance and Operations Strategic Partner, Thom Greenlaw. The next phase is to engage Connor Associates and Greenlaw in a search for a new Director of Operations and Campus Planning.
Thom has served for over twenty-five years in varying senior roles in independent schools. He was most prominently the Special Assistant for Strategic Initiatives at Buckingham Browne & Nichols School (BB&N) from 2017-18 and Assistant Head for Operations/CFO at BB&N from 2001-2013. Thom also served as COO and Assistant Head for Strategic Initiatives at the Ethel Walker School and Business Manager of the Dana Hall School. Through his consulting practice Creative Independents, Thom has served dozens of independent schools on a variety of initiatives, special projects and executive search services. He currently is the President of ISCC, a Massachusetts self-insured collaborative. He served for over twenty-five years in varying senior roles in independent schools.
Hackley Head of School Michael Wirtz conducted a diligent national search and selected Thom Greenlaw with Connor Associates based on Thom’s talents and the desired outcomes that Michael sought. This type of foresight from the Head of School is laudable as he seeks to proactively set the agenda for Hackley’s reputation for leadership among independent schools in general. Head of School Wirtz expands on why Connor Associates was chosen for this important work:
“Thom brings a wealth of expertise and experience to his engagements, both of which were helpful as he conducted an audit of our Business Office in advance of a planned leadership transition. I also appreciated having him as a thought partner as I considered different ways to staff the office and to follow up on action items from the audit. His insights provide a roadmap that will help our Business Office run better and smoothly throughout this critical period.”
Thom Greenlaw’s Scope of Work
Part of Thom's financial and operational assessment at Hackley School included:
- Surveying key constituencies;
- Reviewing policies, procedures and the supporting systems and infrastructure;
- Reviewing staff organization, skills, and competencies;
- conducting a gap analysis between current resources and future needs, and
- assessing Hackley’s financial model against benchmarked institutions.
More About Hackley School
Hackley is a nonsectarian coeducational K-12 independent school located in Tarrytown, NY, 20 miles north of New York City on the Hudson River. Founded as an all-boys boarding school in 1899, Hackley is now a co-educational day and boarding school enrolling around 840 students in grades Kindergarten through Grade 12, including approximately 30 five-day boarding students in Grades 9 -12. Hackley combines the community cohesion of a boarding school with the stimulation of a day school, all in close proximity to one of the great cities of the world. The School is intentionally committed to fostering a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community, creating an educational experience and community that embraces both the open exchange of ideas and learning from varying perspectives. The values and ethos of the School are perhaps best embodied in the phrase “Enter Here to Be and Find a Friend,” which is carved over a door on the Main Building. To learn more about Hackley’s special community and the talented people who support it, please visit https://www.hackleyschool.org/.
Connor Associates is proud to have Hackley School as a client. Although Connor Associates is based in northern California, our 16 associates and strategic partners span the country. Over the past 22 years we have served the market research, planning, and branding needs for hundreds of private, charter, independent, and international K-12 schools in the US, Europe, Africa, and Asia. If you’re interested in knowing more about Connor Associates and our strategic partners, contact us here.
