Robert L. “Bob” Keasler Jr., vice president for finance and treasurer at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, has been named the new vice president for administration and finance at Shenandoah University. A native of Altavista, Virginia, he replaces Richard C. Shickle, who retired Sept. 1, after serving in the post for 31 years. Keasler will begin his new position Dec. 1.
“Bob’s depth of experience and commitment to innovation truly distinguished him in a pool of talented applicants,” said Shenandoah University President Tracy Fitzsimmons, Ph.D. “He has a great understanding of administrative and financial affairs at smaller colleges and universities, which makes him an excellent fit for Shenandoah. We’re excited for him to use his abundant abilities in the service of maintaining the university’s financial stability and supporting its continued growth.”
“I was attracted to how Shenandoah combines the best of a liberal arts education with professional and pre-professional studies, as well as its institutional agility to both enhance existing programs and develop new ones based on student interests and needs,” Keasler said. “Shenandoah is a place on the move.”
For Keasler, relocating to Winchester will be a homecoming of sorts. “When I was growing up in Virginia, you took one year of world history, one year of American history, and seven years of Virginia history. As a Virginian, that always seemed proportional to me,” he said with good humor before noting that there’s a more poignant element to his return to his home state. “To be close to my wife’s mother, our only living parent, will be a great blessing.”
Shenandoah’s Office of Administration and Finance oversees the administrative, financial and budgetary functions of the university and coordinates its student employment, legal services and insurance programs. Areas handled by the office include auxiliary services, financial aid, human resources, institutional computing, physical plant and student accounts. It’s all extremely familiar territory for Keasler. In his duties at Centre, which began in July 2012, he has been responsible for all business activities of the college, including treasury activities from working capital to long term endowment investments, as well as operations of the physical plant, capital projects, sustainability, and risk management.
A certified public accountant (CPA), Keasler earned a Master of Professional Accountancy degree (MPAcc) from Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina, in 1996. He worked at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, from 2002 until 2012, where he began his tenure as chief financial officer and treasurer, but was promoted to senior vice president of operations and finance in early 2006. Prior to Wofford, Keasler served from 1989 to 2002 Anderson University in Anderson, South Carolina, where he was promoted from controller to vice president for business affairs in May 1993. His title then changed two years later to vice president for administration when new responsibilities were added to the position.
Keasler attended the University of Virginia for two years before transferring to Clemson University when his parents retired and moved to South Carolina. He earned a bachelor’s degree in zoology from Clemson in 1978, and the early years of his career were spent in supervisory roles in the textile industry in North and South Carolina. His concern about the long-term financial health of the textile industry was the driving force behind his initial decision to become a CPA.
He is the current chairman of the National Association of College and University Business Officers’ Small Institutions Council. It is his second term on the council, which is responsible for identifying some of the most pressing issues in higher education for small institutions (enrollments less than 4,000) and creating conference sessions, white papers, webcasts and magazine articles to address them.
He is also serving in his first year as co-vice chairman of the comprehensive college committee of the Southern Association of College and University Business Officers and a co-founder of the Higher Education Systems and Services Consortium, which is an association of 60-plus private colleges seeking innovative and collaborative systems and shared services models allowing institutions to focus their resources on those programs and activities that are differentiators within the higher education marketplace.
In addition, Keasler is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the South Carolina Association of CPAs.
Keasler and his wife, Carla, a longtime high school science teacher, are the parents of three grown children. When not at work, Keasler enjoys spending time with his grandchildren, golf, racquetball and Civil War history.