Gary Nicksa, who has been one of BU’s top finance administrators through bank failures and a global pandemic, is retiring at the end of the year.

University News

Gary Nicksa, Who Managed BU through Recession and Pandemic, Is Retiring after 18 Years of Financial Stewardship

“I see his fingerprints everywhere on campus,” BU President Emeritus Robert A. Brown says. Nicole Tirella will succeed Nicksa.

Gary Nicksa, who as part of Boston University’s financial affairs leadership helped BU prosper for nearly two decades despite having to navigate through two economic catastrophes—the 2008 financial crisis and COVID-19—will retire at the end of the year.

Nicksa, senior vice president, chief financial officer, and treasurer, directed multiple financial functions, including the University controller’s office, treasury and risk management, research financial operations, procurement to payment services, internal auditing, and continuous improvement and data analytics services. Nicole Tirella, currently vice president for financial operations and University controller, will succeed him. 

“The University is in a very good place financially, which is always the best time for a financial leadership transition,” Nicksa says. “After leaving BU, I will be doing some traveling and thinking about what comes next. I have always wanted time to volunteer more, and I have a couple of ideas that I’m going to explore.

“The amount of positive change at BU over the last 18 years has been remarkable,” he adds. “Our financial growth is just one measure. The quality of our faculty, student demand, investment in our campuses, and the philanthropic support of alumni, trustees, and other donors have all increased significantly. To have been part of the leadership team that facilitated that change has been tremendously rewarding.”

“He has been an invaluable contributor to the University’s outstanding financial and operational performance,” Kenneth Freeman, BU president ad interim, said in announcing Nicksa’s retirement.

Tirella, Freeman added, “has outstanding credentials as a financial officer and is abundantly qualified for this new role. I am confident that she will continue the high level of financial management in support of our mission of education, research, and service.”

BU President Emeritus Robert A. Brown, whose tenure coincided with Nicksa’s, says that the latter’s legacy is visible across the University: “I see his fingerprints everywhere on campus, on new buildings and renovations, on our financial performance—which made most things possible—and on the people he hired and mentored, who are the next generation of our leadership.” 

Recent months testify to the strength of the University’s finances. In June, Moody’s rated BU’s long-term bonds Aa3 (“high quality” and “very low credit risk”), while Standard & Poor’s awarded AA- (“very strong”). The fiscal year ending June 30, 2023, saw a net operating gain for BU of $152 million, similar to the pre-pandemic results of 2019. The University also received $646 million in research awards, 22 percent more than the previous year. Cash fundraising totaled a record $273 million. 

That financial strength results from BU’s academic and research excellence, Nicksa says. It enabled undergraduate financial aid to almost triple, he says, from $145 million in 2005 to $394 million in 2023. Landmark academic facilities, including the Rajen Kilachand Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering, the Center for Computing & Data Sciences, the Joan & Edgar Booth Theatre, the School of Law and Myles Standish Hall restorations, and the Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine expansion, opened on Nicksa’s watch, while BU also completed its merger with the former Wheelock College to create the Wheelock College of Education & Human Development.

Nicksa came to BU in 2005 as part of an administrative restructuring that better integrated the support operations of the Charles River and Medical Campuses. He earned a bachelor’s in business administration from the University of Vermont and a master’s in taxation from Bentley College. A certified public accountant, he began his career with the firm that became PriceWaterhouseCoopers. He also worked in real estate development, construction, and property management before coming to BU. (He has been the chief financial and administrative officer at Newbury College and at Buckingham Browne & Nichols School.)

At BU, he became senior vice president for operations in 2011 and assumed his current responsibilities in 2021.

Three years after he arrived, the country entered the worst banking collapse since the 1930s. “The University’s response to the 2008 financial crisis was very thoughtful,” Nicksa recalls. “Our business model enabled us to respond quickly to financial challenges our students and their families faced during the Great Recession,” which marked one of just three bouts of double-digit unemployment nationwide since the Great Depression.

Another such bout came, briefly, early in the pandemic. 

“COVID obviously impacted everyone’s financial and emotional well-being in ways no one anticipated,” Nicksa says. “BU’s focus on teaching, research, and student life did not change. That focus drove us to work nonstop from March through August 2020 to be back on campus in September 2020. That effort resulted in us weathering the crisis in much better financial shape than other institutions. I think our response to the COVID pandemic was best-in-class. Looking back, we provided a remarkably safe place for students, faculty, and staff to live, learn, and do research.” 

A study funded by the University and its Genome Science Institute found that BU’s classroom mask mandate and vaccination requirements allowed the campus to repopulate safely in fall 2020. 

“The entire BU community responded to that [COVID] challenge in an unprecedented way,” he says. “People felt safer on campus than any place else. We should all take great pride in what was accomplished, while hoping to never have to do it again.”

Tirella inherits her role with the pandemic in the rearview mirror. She received a bachelor’s in accounting from the State University of New York at Oneonta and a master’s in accounting from the University of Massachusetts. She also is a CPA, having spent seven-plus years as an auditor for the global accounting and tax firm KPMG, specializing in higher education and nonprofits. Before coming to BU in 2020, she was associate controller at the University of Massachusetts.

She says her early to-do list will include helping Melissa Gilliam implement her initiatives when she becomes BU’s 11th president in July.

“I’m excited to build upon Financial Affairs’ solid foundation established by the two prior CFOs, Gary Nicksa and Marty Howard,” Tirella says. “I hope to lead the department and University to reach new financial heights, integrate technologies to streamline business processes, and promote cross-collaboration with academic and administrative departments.”