Westlake resident named VP of finance and business services at Tri-C

Westlake resident Michael Abouserhal has been named vice president, finance and business services at Cuyahoga Community College. Abouserhal will officially begin his duties in January. He will succeed Mark Polatajko, who accepted the position of vice president, business and fiscal affairs at Wright State University in Dayton.
 
Abouserhal brings more than 28 years of public sector financial and executive experience to this position, including nearly three years in his current role at Tri-C as executive director, accounting and financial operations.  

Since arriving at Tri-C in 2008, Abouserhal designed and implemented several College-wide projects and initiatives. Among them were reworking the College’s chart of accounts, revamping the reconciliation process and improving the College’s budgeting and forecasting process among a host of others.
 
Abouserhal spearheaded the creation of the Red Flags Committee where he worked to develop a Red Flags protocol which was adopted by the Board of Trustees. The purpose of the committee is to protect personally identifiable information of Tri-C students, employees and vendors. Abouserhal was also instrumental in the RTA U-Pass project. U-Pass, short for “universal pass,” allows students to purchase discounted public transportation passes to ride RTA anytime.  
 
Prior to Tri-C, Abouserhal was assistant commissioner of finance for Cleveland Public Power. Before that, he was appointed by the governor as the executive director of the Ohio Lottery Commission, a state cabinet-level position. He oversaw the entire agency, setting strategic directions for the Lottery Commission while being that agency’s chief representative at the state legislature and the governor’s office. Abouserhal has also served as assistant financial director for the City of Cleveland and senior deputy auditor for the performance audit department of the auditor of state.

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Volume 3, Issue 21, Posted 5:20 PM, 10.18.2011