The Concordia Student Union selected Robert Henri to be the new general manager, on Aug.14. The position had previously been unfilled for over a year, leaving CSU executives eager to find the right person to take on the position. “Having a general manager will greatly benefit all the CSU executives and give them more opportunity to focus on their jobs,” said CSU President Melissa Kate Wheeler.
In May 2012 the previous general manager resigned and until this August the CSU has been operating without any advising or management from a general manager. During the 2012 fall semester former CSU President Schubert Laforest became ill and after only half his session as president, had to resign. Following this misfortune, the CSU council elected Andrew Roberts in March 2013 to take over as president for the remainder of the school year.
Immediately after accepting his position as CSU President, Roberts got in touch with Human Resources and formed a hiring committee to start the process of searching for a new general manager. By the time the candidates were shortlisted, Roberts had finished his term as president and Wheeler stepped up to finish the selection process, while simultaneously commencing her work for the upcoming 2013-2014 school year.
Wheeler, CSU executives and the hiring committee came to a unanimous decision that Robert Henri was the best choice for the position. “He was the most well rounded candidate for the job.” “With Robert here we’ll be able to focus on our work, CSU would have really suffered without him and I don’t know how they survived last year without a general manager,” said Wheeler.
Henri has already started working with the CSU, his new role as general manager will focus mainly on dealing with the CSU’s accounting and finances, as well as managing the staff of executives. Wheeler is confident that Henri’s background in accounting will greatly benefit the CSU and his hiring will undoubtedly be a relief to VP Finance, Scott Carr, who had been taking on the majority of the work associated with the role of general manager in the absence of a qualified replacement.
A stream of unfortunate events and the decision of the previous CSU council to postpone the selection process lead to a year without a general manager and unquestionably much heavier workload for CSU Executives. With the assistance of the new general manager, Wheeler predicts a less stressful school year, giving the CSU executives more time to focus on their jobs and upcoming tasks.
