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Tim Walsh Named Vice President for Finance at Duke

In his new role, Walsh will oversee an array of accounting, reporting and financial functions.

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Tim Walsh

Tim Walsh, Duke's assistant vice president and controller for the past six years, has been named the university's vice president for finance, school officials announced Tuesday. He will assume his new role immediately.Walsh was selected following a three-month national search, during which time he served as the interim vice president for finance. He succeeds Hof Milam, who left in December to become the senior vice president for finance and administration at Wake Forest University, his alma mater.Since joining Duke in 2004, Walsh has overseen the largest division of central finance. In addition, he recently led the analysis efforts for the Duke Administrative Reform Team (DART), which since the global economic slowdown has identified ways for Duke to save more than $60 million annually."Tim is very smart and experienced. He did a great job leading the DART process as we took more than $60 million out of the operating budget," said Tallman Trask III, Duke's executive vice president. "We all have great confidence in him."As vice president for finance, Walsh will oversee an array of accounting, reporting and financial functions, including the treasury, budgeting, procurement, real estate, stores and licensing, administrative systems, research costing and compliance, auxiliaries finance and controller's functions. He will be in charge of a staff of 375 people. At Duke, Walsh has, among other things, co-chaired efforts to streamline core financial and administrative processes that support the university's international activities; chaired  the Research Administration Continuous Improvement (RACI) initiative, which promotes the efficient and effective administration of Duke's $800 million research enterprise; and overseen the implementation of monthly reporting processes that provide greater transparency of the university's comprehensive financial performance to executive administrators and trustees.  "Throughout my tenure at Duke, I have been fortunate to serve with very talented and dedicated leaders, partners and teams," Walsh said. "We all recognize that the administration must continue to improve our service to the faculty, staff and students of the university and health system in the years ahead, and I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to do so in this new role."  Before joining Duke in 2004, Walsh held a series of finance positions that included administrative roles at Tulane University and the University of Notre Dame and consulting work at 10 major research universities, including Vanderbilt University, Emory University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.He earned his bachelor's of business administration degree from Notre Dame in 1994 and his MBA from the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration in 2001.