Yale CFO Gwendolyn Sykes Speaks at Yale SOM for Black History Month

When Gwendolyn Sykes interviewed for the CFO position at NASA, she was told the federal space agency had been experiencing “financial challenges.” What she found after the Senate approved her for the position in 2002 was something closer to chaos. Three times the agency had tried to implement a new financial system and failed. Also, there was the small issue of a $1.73 billion discrepancy between the NASA books and the Treasury Department’s accounting, a difference no one at NASA could figure out. “They’ve got great engineers and scientists over at NASA,” said Sykes in a recent talk at SOM, hosted by the SOM Black Business Alliance as part of Black History Month. “But they’re terrible at financial management. There was a lot of clean-up to do.”

Sykes, who spent more than four years as NASA’s CFO, got the new system implemented and dramatically closed the agency’s budget gap. She left last year to become Yale’s first CFO, a major shift for a career government employee. The move, she said, has required some adjustment. “At NASA I had a budget of $16.6 billion of the taxpayers’ money — and it was a steady stream coming in,” she said. “Here at Yale, there’s a $22 billion endowment, but it’s for today, tomorrow, and into the future. We have to make sure the money is spent well enough so that we can educate students today, but also be prepared for the generations to come. It requires a totally different mindset.”

Sykes grew up in Alaska and started her government work in the office of Republican Senator Ted Stevens, before moving to the Department of Defense and NASA. For most of her talk she focused on what has made her an effective manager. Sykes refers to her style as “managing myself out of a job” and “managing by walking around.” She recommended that new managers go out and meet the people who work for them. Since she joined Yale last summer, she’s spent months learning exactly what each person does, to better understand how to move her department forward. “I came here to lead,” she said. “The first three things I’ve done since arriving at Yale are to look, listen, and learn. The best ideas come from the people actually doing the work.”

She insists she’s not a typical leader. As a manager, Sykes said her goal is to build a team of capable individuals who could function fully if she stepped back. A major way to accomplish this, she said, is to treat the staff well, to show them respect. It’s only when everyone buys into the idea of change that progress can actually occur. “People skills,” she said, “are very important. They often get overlooked, but if there’s a crisis, they really pay off.”

Crisis has been a common theme of Sykes’ professional career. She was working for Senator Stevens when the Exxon-Valdez ran aground off Alaska. It was her job to help shape the legislation that dealt with it. She was in the Pentagon on 9/11 and at NASA when the Columbia exploded. “Each tragedy helped me grow as a leader,” she said. “Tragedy brings opportunities. But I’m hoping that life at Yale will be a little easier.”