After just over a year of working at Goshen College as a vice president for finance and the college’s chief financial officer (CFO), Jim Alvarez resigned from his administrative roles last month on Feb. 1.

I have immensely valued Jim's counsel and support.

— President Rebecca Stoltzfus

Ben Bontrager, previously serving as the school’s chief operating officer (COO), has taken over his responsibilities and the titles of VP for finance and CFO. Bontrager will remain a member of the President’s cabinet.

In an email sent to faculty earlier this semester, President Rebecca Stoltzfus said that she was “deeply grateful” for the work that Alvarez and Bontrager did as vice presidents. 

She continued to say that they brought “fresh ideas and leadership capacities” to GC, and that with their help, the school “made meaningful progress.”

In order to “streamline [GC’s] executive leadership team,” Stoltzfus said, “Ben will become our vice president for finance, while continuing to oversee facilities, events and ITS. The additional role of vice president for operations will discontinue.”

Bontrager has 20 years of experience in financial leadership. Before his time at GC, he spent seven years at Goshen Health, originally as their director of finance before spending the last four years as its CFO. 

“Alvarez wound down his time in that role and our two positions were consolidated back into one,” he said, on the process.

Before his time at Goshen, Alvarez was a senior vice president and CFO at Everence. He said that when he was hired, the plan was that his time at GC “was for a limited term between one to three years.” 

“My role was to maintain stability in the accounting and financial area,” Alvarez said, “in order to provide Ben Bontrager space and time to take over the areas of [ITS], Phys Plant and to launch the building project for the Westlawn renovations.”

This semester, Alvarez, Bontrager and the administration felt that enough progress had been made and Bontrager had settled into his new role well enough to transition Alvarez out of administrative work.

“I am grateful for Ben’s openness to this transition and the expertise he brings to this role,” Stoltzfus said. 

“Jim is completing several projects related to our federal grants and will continue his teaching for the business department this semester,” she added. 

“I have immensely valued Jim’s counsel and support during this past year, and I wish him well in his next endeavors.”