Acting Finance Chief Named

Harvard named Elizabeth Mora to serve as acting vice president for finance starting April 1, temporarily filling the gap left by Ann E. Berman’s impending departure at the end of this month and prolonging the search for a permanent replacement.

The move means that the two top financial posts at the University—Berman’s job and the Harvard Management Company (HMC) presidency—will change hands within a two-month span.

And since University officials have said that Mora will not hold the position over the long term, the move means that the finance post and Harvard’s presidency will be filled by interim appointees.

Mora will temporarily vacate her current position as the University’s associate vice president for sponsored programs, in which she has helped oversee regulations for funding research endeavors such as the Broad Institute, the genomics collaboration between Harvard and MIT.

Mora will return to her old job once Harvard finishes its search for a long-term successor to Berman.

Berman announced in September that she would step down from her position as finance VP at the end of this March to spend half of the year living in Italy and half back at Harvard in an advisory role.

Like Mora, Berman, who began as acting finance VP in October 2002,started out as an interim appointee. Then, in February 2003, the University dropped the “acting” from her title with the understanding that she would serve for a term of three more years.

In a statement yesterday, University President Lawrence H. Summers expressed confidence in Mora’s ability to fill Berman’s post.

“Beth’s extensive experience with all parts of the University and her ability to handle complex and sensitive issues will serve Harvard well in the coming months,” said Summers.

In overseeing University finance, Mora will face many of the challenges Berman tackled during her tenure. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest arm, is projected for face a $100 million deficit by 2010. And Harvard is gearing up for a costly campus expansion to Allston.

Mora, in a statement yesterday, said, “With the assistance and support of the highly talented senior team in Financial Administration, I am confident that the University’s finances will be well-managed during this period.”

Mora, who is a certified public accountant, joined Harvard in 1997 as director of cost analysis and compliance after a 10-year career with accounting firm Coopers & Lybrand, now PricewaterhouseCoopers.

She holds a master’s degree in business administration from the Simmons School of Management in Boston and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

The other new face on the University’s finance team is Mohamed A. El-Erian, a star money manager and former International Monetary Fund official who became head of HMC last month.

HMC invests the University’s endowment, while the finance VP is in charge of Harvard’s budget, among other responsibilities.

—Staff writer Cyrus M. Mossavar-Rahmani can be reached at crahmani@fas.harvard.edu.