FAS Chief Financial Officer Kofi Ofori Departs Harvard for Towson University

Faculty of Arts and Sciences Chief Financial Officer Kofi N. Ofori will leave Harvard this week, marking yet another administrative shakeup as the school faces mounting budgetary pressures.

Ofori, who joined Harvard in June 2024, will now serve as senior vice president and chief financial officer of Towson University, according to a press release from the school. Allen Aloise, who currently serves as dean for administration and finance at Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, will serve as interim CFO beginning April 22, FAS Interim Dean for Administration and Finance Mary Ann Bradley announced Tuesday in a message to faculty.

Ofori’s departure comes amid a large-scale cost-cutting campaign as the FAS grapples with a $365 million structural deficit. He currently serves on a committee with plans to overhaul the school’s administrative structure this summer.

FAS spokesperson James M. Chisholm declined to comment on the circumstances of Ofori’s departure.

Ofori’s exit is the latest in a series of administrative shakeups at the University. The FAS appointed Warren Petrofsky as dean of administration and finance in February after Scott A. Jordan, the previous dean, stepped down last summer. Last month, Harvard announced that Astronomy professor Karin Öberg would serve as senior vice provost for faculty after longtime administrator Judith D. Singer left the post.

Ofori, who had previously directed financial planning at John Hopkins University’s Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, took the reins as FAS CFO in a period of unprecedented turmoil.

His predecessor, Jay Herlihy, left Harvard for the Groton School in October 2023 — leaving Ofori to handle the fallout of a donor exodus in protest of the University’s response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Since then, he has seen the FAS through a profusion of cost-cutting measures. Under the combined pressure of federal funding cuts and the looming deficit, the school slashed Ph.D. admissions, cut non-tenure-track faculty budgets by 25 percent across divisions, and kept spending flat for fiscal year 2026.

As part of the efforts, FAS Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra convened a committee to reorganize staff positions across the school. The Task Force on Workforce Planning — a body Ofori sits on — found more than 1,500 unique job titles in 2,300 full-time staff positions and a maze of financial, human resources, and administrative systems.

The FAS hired management consulting firm McKinsey & Company to advise on the restructuring plan, which will integrate a range of administrative structures and likely involve layoffs.

Ofori leaves on the precipice of the overhaul — scheduled to take place this summer.

In the press release, Towson University President Mark R. Ginsberg praised Ofori’s “deep expertise” with university finances.

“I am confident he will be an outstanding partner to our academic and administrative leaders and a respected colleague in support of our university community,” Ginsberg wrote.

—Staff writer Abigail S. Gerstein can be reached at [email protected] and on Signal at abbysg.97. Follow her on X @abbysgerstein.

—Staff writer Amann S. Mahajan can be reached at [email protected] and on Signal at amannsm.38. Follow her on X @amannmahajan.