WesternU Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer

Dear WesternU Faculty, Staff, and Students,

I am pleased to announce that WesternU has selected Joshua McFarlen, CPA, CA, MPAcc, to serve as our Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Treasurer, effective as of December 31, 2022.

The CFO role is critical to WesternU as we realign resources to effectively support institutional strategy, the academic enterprise, and student support. Josh has established his dedication to balancing the multiple – and sometimes competing – budgetary demands. His commitment to student, faculty, and staff success is paramount.

Josh joined WesternU in July 2018 as Vice President for Finance and has served as Interim CFO and Treasurer since April 2021. He was selected as CFO and Treasurer following a competitive national search conducted by WittKiefer and led by a WesternU search committee, chaired by WesternU Associate Vice President of IT and Deputy Chief Operating Officer Denise (NeeCee) Cornish, DBA, MBA. Thank you to Dr. Cornish, and everyone who served on the committee, for your dedication and hard work.

Josh stood out among a strong candidate pool with his experience, knowledge, and understanding of academia’s unique nature and the complexity of postgraduate healthcare education in a post-pandemic world. As CFO and Treasurer, he will report directly to me and the Board of Trustees.

The following representative comments from our various WesternU constituents have been communicated to me and include that it is a pleasure to work with Josh; his leadership skill, financial acumen and integrity, his determination to see WesternU be the very best, and his vision for our University to achieve its mission make him ideally suited for this role.

Josh earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance from the University of Regina and a master’s degree in accounting from the University of Saskatchewan. He is an active, licensed Certified Public Accountant in California and Canada. He began his career in the audit practice of Big 4 public accounting firm KPMG, then served as a Financial Administrative Officer and in the Controller’s Office at the University of Saskatchewan. He also spent time in a CFO role in private financial services prior to joining WesternU.

I will close this announcement by sharing Josh’s response to his appointment to CFO and Treasurer: “I look forward to continuing to support the WesternU community in my role as CFO. I am both humbled and honored at this appointment and will do everything in my power to be the strong fiscal advocate the University will need as it continues to grow and transform in service to our students and our communities.”

My very warmest regards,
Robin