Office of the Executive Vice President and Treasurer
Treasurers of the Institute
*The Executive Vice President and Treasurer roles were combined in 2007
| Charles Henry Dalton | 1865-1867 |
| William Endicott, Jr. | 1867-1872 |
| John Cummings | 1872-1889 |
| Lewis A. Tappan | 1889-1891 |
| George Wigglesworth | 1891-1907 |
| Francis R. Hart | 1907-1909, 1913-1921 |
| William B. Thurber | 1909-1913 |
| Everett Morss | 1921-1933 |
| Horace S. Ford | 1934-1950 |
| Joseph J. Snyder | 1950-1975 (and Vice President) |
| Glenn P. Strehle | 1975-1986 1986-1994 (and Vice President) 1994-1998 (and Vice President for Finance) |
| Allan S. Bufferd | 1999-2006 |
| Theresa M. Stone | February 2007*-2011 |
| Israel Ruiz | 14 October 2011-30 June 2020 |
| Glen Shor | 2 October 2020- |
The executive vice president and treasurer is one of the principal officers of MIT, along with the chairman of the Corporation, the president, and the secretary.
The position of the treasurer was created when the Institute was incorporated in 1861. The first treasurer was Charles Henry Dalton. Like the other principal officers of the Institute, Dalton was appointed by a five-member nominating committee. He was charged with keeping an account of all moneys received and expended for the use of the Institute. He was authorized to make disbursements only upon vouchers, approved by the Committee of Finance, which also advised him in the care and investment of the Corporation’s funds. He was required to report to the Corporation semi-annually, or more often, and to the Institute annually.
The primary responsibilities of the treasurer included preparing the annual budget, overseeing the purchase and sale of securities and real estate, managing property insurance policies, mortgages, leases and building contracts, and administering bequests and scholarship funds. Although the bursar handled the routine finances of the Institute, particularly difficult problems regarding salaries, pensions, and individual scholarships were referred to the treasurer. By 1883, the treasurer was appointed by the Executive Committee.
In 1892 an executive subcommittee, consisting of two committee members, was appointed to assist the treasurer in the preparation of the budget. The treasurer would solicit annual budget requests from each academic department, and the Budget Committee would submit recommendations for budget appropriations for departmental expenses and salaries to the Executive Committee for approval. Because of his intimate knowledge of Institute finances, the treasurer was routinely appointed to other committees such as the Technological Fund Committee, 1904-1907; the Site Committee, formed in 1906 to find a new location for the MIT campus; the Income Fund, formed in the same year to secure funds for the project; and the Presidential Search Committee, formed in 1907.
By 1906 the payment of salaries and the authorized borrowing of funds were specifically listed among the responsibilities of the treasurer. By 1934 the financial agent of the Institute Corporation was appointed by the Finance Committee, of which the treasurer was an ex officio member.
The ever-increasing need for the Institute to raise money to enlarge endowed and permanent funds rendered the investment returns on the Institute’s assets extremely important. In 1952 the senior administration of the Corporation was restructured to include both a financial vice president and an academic vice president. Joseph J. Snyder, appointed treasurer in 1950, became vice president and treasurer.
In 1973 the Corporation Executive Committee redesignated the functions of the treasurer, separating them from the management of financial operations which report to the vice president for fiscal relations (later the vice president for financial operations). The treasurer of the Corporation became solely responsible for the stewardship and enhancement of the Institute’s assets and investments. The vice president for financial operations had responsibility for the Comptroller, Accounting, Finance, Lincoln Laboratory Fiscal Office, and the Office of Sponsored Programs. As a result, the treasurer reported jointly in the MIT Annual Report to the President with the vice president for financial operations.
In 1974 the sale, transfer, or investment of Corporation property was governed by the policies and procedures set down by an Investment Committee. This committee consisted of the chairman of the Corporation and the treasurer, ex officio, plus five members and two rotating members of the Corporation and could be chaired by any of the nine members. The treasurer was required to report to the Investment Committee and the vice president for financial operations.
In 1986 the vice president for resource development retired, and the responsibilities for that office were transferred to the incumbent treasurer, Glenn P. Strehle. Strehle then became vice president and treasurer. As treasurer, he had become involved in the cultivation and solicitation of numerous important donors and was responsible for the processing of gifts to the Institute through the recording secretary’s office. With the new appointment, Strehle devoted the majority of his efforts to the management of resource development and the deputy treasurer and director of investments, Allan S. Bufferd, assumed day-to-day responsibility for operations of the treasurer’s office.
In 1994 the senior administration of the Institute was reorganized and Glenn Strehle became vice president for finance and treasurer. The Office of the Treasurer was organized under two functional components: capital gifts and investments. The Office of Capital Gifts and Legal Affairs became responsible for managing capital gifts. The Office of the Deputy Treasurer for Investments became responsible for managing investments.
In 2004, the MIT Investment Management Company (MITIMCo) was established as a separate division of the Institute to manage the Institute’s endowment with oversight by the Executive Committee of the MIT Corporation. Allan Bufferd became the first president of MITIMCo in July 2004 and was succeeded by Seth Alexander in May 2006.
With Allan Bufferd’s retirement in 2006, the treasurer’s function became part of the responsibilities of the executive vice president for finance and administration. Previous executive vice presidents were John Curry (1998-2005) and Sherwin Greenblatt (interim 2005-2007).
Theresa M. Stone, a member of the MIT Corporation since 1996, was appointed executive vice president and treasurer in February 2007. Stone’s successor, Israel Ruiz, vice president for finance since 2007, was elected executive vice president and treasurer by the MIT Corporation on October 14, 2011. Ruiz’s successor, Glen Shor, vice president for finance since 2015, was elected executive vice president and treasurer by the MIT Corporation on October 2, 2020.
The executive vice president and treasurer is the Institute’s chief fiduciary officer and is responsible for leading all of the administrative and financial functions at MIT, and working with the president, the Corporation and members of MIT’s senior leadership team to ensure that MIT’s financial, capital, and operational resources are optimally deployed in a manner that supports the Institute’s academic mission of education and research. The executive vice president and treasurer reports on the financial condition of the Institute to the members at the annual meeting, or more often if determined to be necessary by the executive vice president and treasurer or requested by the Executive Committee.
The executive vice president and treasurer serves as an ex officio member of the Executive Committee and the Development Committee and the Development Committee Executive Board, as an ex officio director of MITIMCo, and as an ex officio member of the Corporation.
http://orgchart.mit.edu/executive-vice-president-and-treasurer
Prepared by Distinctive Collections, MIT Libraries
November 1995; updated 2008, 2011, 2015, 2020