Germaine Gross Named Vice President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer at Grinnell College
Germaine Gross has been appointed to serve as the new vice president for finance and chief financial officer at Grinnell College. Gross is currently chief business officer and chief of staff for the School of Liberal Arts at Tulane University in New Orleans. She will begin work at Grinnell on July 1, 2022.
As a member of the senior leadership team, Gross will provide strategic vision and direction for the college’s financial operations. She will help steward the College’s financial resources to ensure the financial sustainability needed to maintain Grinnell's position at the forefront of liberal-arts education.
“Germaine brings impressive operational and financial management experience to our already strong financial position,” said Grinnell President Anne F. Harris. “She will be a great collaborator, facilitator, and partner within the consensus-driven administrative culture at Grinnell. I look forward to the leadership she will bring to her role as vice president for finance and chief financial officer.”
Gross comes to Grinnell with an extensive business background and proven track record of financial oversight and institutional planning in the non-profit and for-profit sectors. In her role at Tulane, she partnered with the dean to set the strategic vision while overseeing day-to-day operations at the School of Liberal Arts. She is recognized as an engaged leader who is respected for building teams and cultivating strong internal and external relationships to cultivate commitment, support, and trust from stakeholders.
“I am humbled to be joining the dynamic leadership team at Grinnell,” Gross said about her Grinnell College appointment. “It is an honor to work on fulfilling President Harris’ vision to build upon the College’s use of resources to more fully realize the potential for community alignment; growth of programs and enrollment; increased diversity, equity, and inclusion; and overall student, faculty, and staff thriving and success. I embrace this opportunity and can’t wait to get started.”
Among other accomplishments at Tulane, Gross spearheaded the School of Liberal Arts’ renovation planning process for 13 buildings in order to support a growing interdisciplinary focus and meet faculty office space needs. She served on the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion “Strategy for Tomorrow” Steering Committee tasked with developing the university’s overall strategic EDI plan. She also co-chaired the School of Liberal Arts’ EDI task force charged with developing school specific tactics to support the university’s EDI strategy.
Before joining Tulane in 2019, Gross was the vice president of finance and administrative services at Volunteers of America Southeast Louisiana (VOASELA), having previously served as CFO for a VOASELA workforce housing development subsidiary. Among her other professional experiences, she has worked with FedEx Corp., the Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System, Charles Schwab & Co, and Coopers & Lybrand (now PriceWaterhouseCoopers).
A licensed certified public accountant, Gross earned her MBA from the University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor’s in management with an accounting concentration from Tulane University.