Brookwood Leadership

Lawrence R. Kelley serves as a Senior Advisor to Brookwood Group. His career has been in financial, operational, and administrative management in both private business and educational environments, including planning and oversight of major university campus expansions and construction programs. He is a Brookwood Group shareholder and now resides in his hometown of Akron, Ohio.

Larry has served in university leadership positions as Controller/Assistant Corporate Secretary, Treasurer, Budget Director, Chief Financial Officer, and Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration and CFO. He has strategic operational, financial, and administrative credentials as well as proven senior management experience, including staff selection, training, and motivation... providing the leadership and decision-making required to plan, develop, and maintain smooth and effective operations. He has published related articles in national periodicals. Specifically, over the course of his career, Larry has:

• Developed and implemented quality leadership practices resulting in savings in operating expenses and enhancement of revenue (published as a best practice by NACUBO).
• Consistently relied upon proven interpersonal skills used to support, enable, and empower people to develop abilities and meet targets.
• Served on numerous state and national committees, including acting as chair of committees on Accounting Standards and Budgeting (published related article in a national periodical).
• Co-authored a chapter in a Lincoln Institute of Land Policy book entitled The University as Urban Developer.
• Established systems and controls for existing and newly acquired operations. Utilized technology to develop and provide management information (published related article in Managing Information Technology as a Catalyst for Change for the CAUSE annual conference).
• Selected and directed the implementation of financial systems in higher education.
• Managed investments, bank relations, cash projections and annual budgets as high as $1 billion.
• Planned, coordinated, and led over $750 million of capital construction in less than 10 years, including a $300 million student housing project.
• Written the Forward for a book authored by George T. Heery entitled: Bridging, A Construction Delivery Method.
• Negotiated union labor contracts based on trust and respect.
• Managed major economic downturns without general layoffs (in both public and private sector organizations).
• Produced and taught a Master of Business Administration for Higher Education course and intermittently taught undergraduate courses in Accounting and Decision Science.
• Served as career coach for higher education leaders and private sector organizations, including Brookwood Group.

Larry’s five-decade career in education includes thirty-one years in the senior university leadership and management role as Vice President and CFO. Before retiring from full-time employment, he served the following universities:

• The University of Akron
• Miami University
• Kent State University
• The University of Maine
• Georgia State University
• The California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) at San Luis Obispo

Universities Larry has served since his retirement from full-time employment include:

• Kent State University (as graduate faculty)
• The University of Toledo
• The College of Charleston
• The University of North Carolina-Charlotte