Saint Mary’s Welcomes Sandra Kim as Its New Vice President for Finance and Administration
She brings to this role a wealth of leadership experience in higher education and in public finance.
Today Saint Mary’s College of California welcomes Sandra Kim as its new Vice President for Finance and Administration. Her first day will be May 15, 2023. Kim brings with her a wealth of leadership experience in higher education and in public finance.
For nearly 10 years, Kim served as associate vice president of finance at the University of California’s Office of the President. There, she oversaw financing strategies and capital and real estate development for the ten-campus UC system, including finance strategies aligned with capital planning, real estate, construction and design, physical and environmental planning, and loan programs.
Most recently and since 2017, she served at UBS Public Finance as managing director and group head for the company’s Higher Education Group, Western Region. In that role, she performed investment banking functions for public finance issuers and lead bankers nationwide, specifically focusing on higher education and not-for-profit issuers such as colleges, universities, research institutes, museums, and foundations. Leveraging her familiarity with higher education, her role included serving as a strategic financing partner for senior finance leaders, presidents and chancellors, and board members.
For nearly 10 years, she served as Associate Vice President of Finance at the University of California’s Office of the President. There, she oversaw financing strategies and capital and real estate development for the 10-campus UC system.
Kim is a highly collaborative leader. Given the immense capital and financial goals at the University of California, she strategically aligned her job functions to further the priorities for all its campuses and medical centers, while acknowledging the uniqueness of each entity for its strengths and challenges. She collaborated with the campus Vice Chancellors of Planning and Budget and Vice Chancellors of Administration, and worked very closely with the Systemwide Budget Office on many initiatives during her tenure.
She also convened systemwide meeting groups to confer and deliberate on many issues affecting UC, such as debt capacity and credit ratings, liquidity management, the capital process, and third party project strategies. These issues, as well as external and internal pension funding, often required bringing together subject matter experts across many functional lines throughout the UC system.
Prior to joining UC in 2008, Kim worked in public finance investment banking focused on higher education and not-for-profit clients. She earned her master’s in public policy from the University of Chicago and a BA from the University of California, Berkeley.
Sandra Kim and her family are longtime residents of the San Francisco Bay Area. She truly admires the core principles and heritage of Saint Mary’s, and in fact her spouse attended a Lasallian primary school in Hong Kong and Archbishop Riordan High School in San Francisco.
We would like to express our appreciation for the long and distinguished career of outgoing Vice President for Finance and Administration Susan Collins, whose last day at Saint Mary’s will be May 31. Thank you for your service to Saint Mary’s, Susan, and best wishes for a wonderful retirement!
We also are grateful to the search committee members for their work:
- Courtney Carmignani
- Kevin Flynn
- Kami Gray
- Brother Thomas Jones, FSC
- Jim Sauerberg
- Dai To
Sandra Kim will undoubtedly be a valued addition to the Saint Mary’s campus community. She offered some insight himself as to why she’s looking forward to joining Saint Mary’s.
“I am very excited to become a part of Saint Mary’s College and look forward to working with all students, faculty and staff,” she said. “Through my many conversations, I was struck by the warmth of the community, the commitment to excellence, and the impact that Saint Mary’s has made for students past and present.”
Welcome, Sandra! We’re happy to have you.
Richard Plumb, President
Corey Cook, Search Committee Chair / Executive Vice President & Provost