Following in the Footsteps of Her Predecessor, Acting Finance VP is Promoted

Elizabeth Mora, who has served as Harvard’s acting vice president for finance since April, has been appointed permanently to the post, the University announced Monday.

“I am excited about the continued opportunity to engage with my colleagues in financial administration and beyond, to support Harvard’s financial well-being, and to help the University meet its ambitious goals,” Mora said in a statement.

Her path to the job closely follows that of her predecessor Ann E. Berman, who announced last September that she would step down at the end of March.

Like Mora, Berman stepped in as acting finance VP in October 2002, then was appointed to the role permanently the following February.

As the University’s chief financial officer, Mora will oversee Harvard’s budget and financial planning, among other responsibilities.

Mora was previously the University’s associate vice president for sponsored programs, in which she helped oversee regulations for funding research endeavors such as the Broad Institute, the genomics collaboration between Harvard and MIT.

At the time of her interim appointment, the University said that Mora would return to her former post once a permanent replacement for Berman was found.

Mora, who is a certified public accountant, joined Harvard in 1997 as director of cost analysis and compliance after a 10-year career with accounting firm Coopers & Lybrand, now PricewaterhouseCoopers.

She holds a master’s degree in business administration from the Simmons School of Management in Boston and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

—Staff writer Cyrus Mossavar-Rahmani can be reached at crahmani@fas.harvard.edu.