The role was created to bring together the work of Fordham’s government relations team and the Center for Community Engaged Learning (CCEL), helping to drive major public initiatives, such as the $50 million EPA grant, and make the University a catalyst for positive impact, locally and globally. Proulx will leverage his expertise in local, state, and federal government relations to secure funding for Fordham’s academic initiatives and amplify the University’s civic engagement at home and abroad.

“Fordham is a unique institution in New York City—it’s just part of our mission to serve the city,”  said Tokumbo Shobowale, Fordham senior vice president, CFO, and treasurer, to whom Proulx will report. “But we could do even more, and part of that is creating better relationships and more coordination with various organizations, public and non-public, across our communities in the city and beyond.”

Shobowale said Proulx intimately understands a university’s dual role in educating students and serving their communities. “He’s done exactly this kind of work for many years in different contexts and he’s very Fordham. He really understands the role that higher education—and government support for higher education—can play for our students.”

Proulx said he’s always known Fordham to be “an exceptional institution.”

“I think amongst all of New York’s colleges and universities, Fordham puts mission at the forefront of its work. A lot of universities share these values but have struggled with how to operationalize them. Fordham is a standout in this area—it’s an institution that’s continually trying to do better. And that’s why I’m so excited to have this opportunity.” 

He said he is particularly excited by the current leadership, namely President Tania Tetlow and Shobowale, who joined Fordham 15 months ago from The New School, where he served for 10 years after spending more than a decade working in city government.

“This leadership team sends the message that they recognize and respect Fordham’s excellence and they want to do more.”

A Personal Commitment to Creating Opportunity

Proulx spent six years at the nation’s largest public university system, the State University of New York (SUNY). There he served as vice chancellor for agency and community engagement, overseeing government relations, policy development, budget and research advocacy, community engagement, and marketing across the system’s 64 campuses. 

As the first in his family to go to college, Proulx is deeply committed to making college more attainable and affordable. New York’s Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP) gave him the financial and personal support he needed to graduate from St. Lawrence University in the Adirondacks. He’s also an alumnus of the CUNY Graduate Center. He said he’s proud of his work at SUNY in helping to expand the income threshold and eligibility requirements for New York State’s Tuition Assistance Program (TAP). 

“It’s important to me to be able to create those opportunities for others who come from similar backgrounds and similar struggles. … That commitment to serving and helping others lift themselves up has been the common thread throughout my career. I would never want to work someplace that wasn’t committed to doing better for others.”

Proulx has also worked on multiple initiatives to address climate change, from creating a statewide plan for agriculture innovations such as vertical farming to the $15 million EV charging network he helped secure for SUNY. Prior to his service at SUNY, he helped lead communications and organizing in support of New York’s 2014 ban on fracking.

He said he admires the exceptional work already happening at Fordham, and plans to build on it—first and foremost with a commitment to being accessible to the campus community. 

“I want people to know that they can reach out to me if they have an idea,” he said, “So we can talk through how to bring in new opportunities and resources for Fordham.” 

“I am thrilled that Tokumbo will be joining Fordham,” said Tania Tetlow, the University’s president. “He brings both big picture strategy and excellence of execution. He understands the complexity of higher education and the challenges ahead.”

Shobowale comes to Fordham from the New School, where he served as executive vice president for business and operations over the past decade. There, he managed a portfolio similar to the University’s—including IT, endowment management, and human resources—and navigated financial constraints, while identifying new opportunities and improving the institution’s credit outlook. Before entering higher education, he served as director of infrastructure for New York City’s Initiative on Rebuilding and Resiliency, a response to Hurricane Sandy. He also served as chief of staff to the deputy mayor for economic development, overseeing more than a dozen agencies, and as chief operating officer of the New York City Economic Development Corporation. 

Shobowale is a Minneapolis native who spent most of his life in New York. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, as well as two master’s degrees, graduating at the top of his class: an M.A. from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, and an M.B.A. from the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management. 

In his new role, Shobowale will manage and strengthen Fordham’s finances. Shobowale officially joins the University this fall, following a national search led by a search committee chaired by Provost Dennis Jacobs, and eight years of service from his predecessor, Martha K. Hirst. 

In a Q&A with Fordham News, Shobowale reflected on all aspects of his career—past, present, and future. 

You managed the New School’s financial portfolio for a decade. What have you learned from your previous work that you’ll bring to Fordham? 

At the New School, we created an expanded university budget committee, which represented a cross-section of the university, including faculty senate members, staff, and students. It’s really helpful in getting broad input, understanding priorities, and getting perspective on the budget, and has helped to guide decisions we’ve made. The second thing—which we did later, after having a series of conversations with people across campus to understand how that budget committee was working—was to form a financial transparency council. That council democratized budget information more broadly in the community, beyond the shared governance of the budget committee. Having these mechanisms was helpful at the New School, and I think something similar could also be helpful at Fordham.

Through this process, we learned that even with the ongoing work of our budget committee, there were still a lot of folks who didn’t really understand the budget. In retrospect, that’s not surprising because university finances are confusing. Many people don’t really understand how financial aid works—even those who have spent their entire lives in higher education—and how the endowment ties into the budget. When you have hundreds of millions of dollars in the endowment, it sounds like an extraordinary amount of money. But the purpose of endowment is to support the institution in perpetuity. You can’t spend all that money at any given moment. It has to be stewarded in a way that maintains its value—real value, even in times of inflation—over decades or centuries. It’s an important resource, but not a panacea that will solve all of a university’s problems. 

What drew you to Fordham? 

It sounds cliché, but the people. I have two former colleagues from the New School who landed at Fordham, and they were the ones who recommended this job opportunity. Back when I worked in public service in the city, I also had the honor of meeting Father McShane and learning firsthand about his spirit of service. Fordham stood out among the institutions in the city, in terms of its level of engagement with the surrounding community and really looking to serve the city beyond its walls. It’s been eye-opening, learning more about Fordham, Jesuit institutions, and their deep commitment to mission and service. It blends in with my previous work for the city—serving a broader community and meeting people where they are.

What accomplishments were you particularly happy with at the New School?

It’s hard to say this because the pandemic was a rough time, but I am very proud that we were able to make the transition, literally in a matter of a couple weeks, to fully remote instruction. That was in large part because we had done work over the preceding years to create infrastructure for information and technology systems that allowed us to do that—and to move the work, including the budgeting and HR, online very quickly. When we returned to campus, we were able to create a system of protocols that were really successful in keeping the community safe—despite how difficult COVID was—with testing and other protocols that were quite effective in protecting our community. 

What are Fordham’s financial strengths? What areas do you hope to build on? 

Fordham’s campuses in this vibrant city—the verdant Rose Hill campus, with acres of space and facilities, and the Lincoln Center campus, with these dense, urban, large buildings—are both incredible financial assets, as well as Fordham’s strong enrollment. It’s a good-sized university and has had strong enrollment for years, and that’s also a strength to build on. 

I think that financial knowledge about the University’s budget and resources is also something to build upon. That’s not unique to Fordham. I’ve heard this over the past decade, while speaking with financial and operational leaders at other campuses. There’s a general lack of knowledge about university finances, and I think that’s something we can work to better address here. 

What are your top priorities for this fiscal year? 

My work with Fordham’s financial portfolio is in support of the University’s mission, so it’s critical to better understand not only each part of the University and all its schools, but also its mission because everything that we do—with our finances, our people, our technology—is in support of that mission. And so that is my number one priority—to get to know the community. I also know that President Tetlow is beginning the strategic planning process, and I want to support that by better understanding her priorities, as well as those of the provost and the deans. 

The people I’ve met so far have been simply delightful. After my job announcement became public, a few people who I didn’t even know were associated with Fordham, who I’ve met elsewhere, reached out to me. I continue to be surprised and excited to learn about the people who are part of the Fordham community.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.