John Masten Appointed As New Associate Director At The Institute For Advanced Study

The Institute for Advanced Study has announced that it has selected John Masten as its new Associate Director for Finance and Administration. Mr. Masten, a senior executive with broad experience in the academic and not-for-profit sectors, will begin at the Institute on December 1. He will replace Allen I. Rowe, who will be retiring from his position in December after twenty-seven years of dedicated service.

Reporting to Peter Goddard, Director of the Institute, Mr. Masten will provide operational, financial and administrative leadership for the Institute. He will oversee all aspects of the administrative services of the Institute, from real estate to information technology. Mr. Masten will also be responsible for financial management and planning and the work of the Institute's accounting staff.

Peter Goddard stated, "John Masten has an outstanding record of achievement as an administrator and financial executive, and he brings to the Institute a wealth of experience in leading educational and not-for-profit institutions. The whole focus of the Institute is the support of the academic research of its Faculty and visiting Members. John is deeply committed to the mission of the Institute and will play a critical role in ensuring that it has the resources essential for its work."

Mr. Masten noted, "I am delighted to be coming to the Institute for Advanced Study, and I am honored to have this opportunity to help sustain and extend its excellence. I look forward, in particular, to joining a community of scholars, staff and trustees that may be unique in its collective dedication to the conduct and support of scholarly inquiry for its own sake."

Mr. Masten has worked for more than 30 years in financial, operations and strategic planning for academic, not-for-profit and public institutions. He was most recently the Executive Vice President for Finance at Columbia University, where he directed for a decade the financial management of the University. While there, Mr. Masten carried out a complete restructuring of the budgetary relationship between the University and its schools, to foster transparency and accountability, and helped secure an upgrading of the University's credit rating to triple A from both Moody's and Standard and Poor's. He also led or had a central role in initiatives in endowment management, information technology, campus expansion, healthcare planning, research administration and university-wide risk assessment.

Before coming to Columbia, Mr. Masten worked at The New York Public Library for eleven years in a range of key roles, concluding his tenure there as Executive Vice President (1991-94). In his time at the Library, he directed all central administrative functions -- including information technology, human resources, and plant operations and construction -- reshaping them to help the Library to realize better its mission. Prior to the Library, Mr. Masten was Assistant Director at the New York City Office of Management and Budget (1978-83), and he served as Director of Corrections Projects at the Vera Institute of Justice (1974-78).

Mr. Masten graduated summa cum laude in history from Dartmouth in 1969, and went on to earn an M.A. in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Balliol College, Oxford, in 1971. He then received a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1974. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York City, and also serves as its Treasurer and as a Member of its Executive Committee. Mr. Masten is also a Trustee of the New York Philomusica, and serves as its Treasurer.