RICHMOND, VA.- The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has appointed Hossein Sadid as the new chief financial officer. His oversight will include accounting/finance, budget, human resources, procurement and the Agency Risk Management and Internal Control (ARMICS) program. The CFO works in partnership with the director and other division heads to provide leadership, strategic direction, and management. Sadid will begin November 17.

He served as vice president for business and finance/treasurer at the University of Richmond from 2009 to 2013. More recently, Sadid has worked as a consultant to the Smithsonian Institution overseeing management transition in the finance and accounting unit. In consultation with Virginia Commonwealth University, he developed a business plan for an in-house investment organization, recommended a costing model for an academic medical center, and developed a strategic plan for the procurement unit.

“We are impressed with Hossein’s innovative thinking, strategic planning, collaborative decision making, and his impressive broad range of experiences working with educational and cultural institutions,” Director Alex Nyerges said. “He has broad financial and business education, expertise, and experience that will be a great benefit to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.”

Sadid has a distinguished portfolio of experience with institutions of higher education, including the University of Richmond, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Wake Forest University, Virginia Commonwealth University, as well as the Smithsonian Institution. He began a 28-year career at Case Western University in Cleveland (a $3 billion university) as the director of internal audit, ultimately being promoted to the position of Chief Financial and Administrative Officer. In that role, he oversaw all finance and business, human resources, facilities, safety and security, campus services, controllership, treasury, budget and planning and internal audit functions of the university.

Throughout the past three decades, Sadid has been an advocate of community interests and diversity, receiving the Hispanic Business Association Annual Award, the Medal of Freedom Award from the Cleveland Chapter of the NAACP, the Governor’s Supplier Diversity Initiative award, the Northeastern Neighborhood Development Corporation Keystone Award for Outstanding Business leadership, the Consortium of African American Organizations Business Development Award and the President’s Council Trailblazer Award.

Sadid is a certified public accountant. He holds an MBA in accounting and finance, and a post graduate certificate in management information systems from Case Western Reserve University.

VMFA was fortunate to have had Mark Johnson for the past seven months as Interim CFO. Johnson assumed this position after the retirement of Fern Spencer, and has been solution-oriented and efficient, delivering a complex state budget, contributing to the strategic planning process and initiating the museum’s first-ever independent financial audit.