Robert L. Culver Named Yale's Vice President for Finance and Administration

President Richard C. Levin today announced the appointment of Robert L. Culver as Vice President for Finance and Administration effective July 16.

Culver, executive vice president and chief financial officer of the Cabot Corporation, was senior vice president and treasurer of Northeastern University from 1990 until 1997.

“Robert Culver brings an impressive record of administrative, financial, and operational experience in the public and private sectors to Yale,” Levin said. “I am pleased to welcome someone with his outstanding credentials and proven dedication to higher education to the University, and my fellow officers and I look forward to working with him as he assumes the management of the University’s finances, facilities, human resources, and other critical services.”

At the Cabot Corporation, Culver was responsible for enterprise-wide financial and system activity, including treasury services, tax, control, management reporting, internal audit, investor relations, corporate planning, mergers and acquisitions and real estate. His responsibilities at Northeastern included all financial services, capital projects, plant maintenance, business affairs and auxiliary services, along with Human Resource Management, Student Health Services, Athletics and all information systems including academic, administrative, and financial computing systems.

He was a member of the finance and management consulting practice of Coopers & Lybrand from 1979-90, where he spent several years consulting to a variety of organizations. After becoming a partner in the firm, he assumed responsibility for the health care consulting practice in the Northeast.

In the early 1970s, Culver served with the Cambridge, Massachusetts school department, helping to secure grants for occupational and vocational education training programs. His was also involved in designing and managing the model for a high school for Cambridge incorporating both vocational and academic learning. He also spent a year as the assistant director for operations at the MBTA, with responsibilities for capital and program budgeting.

Culver received a BA in 1971 from the State University of New York at Buffalo and an MA in 1972 from the London School of Economics. In 1973 he completed an intensive non-degree program in modern and classical Chinese language and history at Cambridge University in England. He earned an MPA from Harvard in 1978.

He served on the Boston School Committee in the early 1990s, aiding the committee in balancing its budget and in the development of a prototype for successful union negotiations. He is a Corporator of Northeastern University and a member of the Board of the New England Conservatory of Music.