Interim Vice President for Business and Chief Financial Officer
Biography
In July of 2025, Eileen Petula joined SMCM as the interim vice president for business and chief financial officer. In this role she is responsible for finance, accounting, budgeting and financial reporting, information technology, human resources, facilities and auxiliary services.
Petula comes to SMCM after serving as interim chief operating officer at Chatham University. She has held senior executive roles at Bucknell University and Allegheny College, preceded by increasingly responsible roles in higher education financial administration at Lafayette College and Swarthmore College. At Chatham University, she was part of a senior leadership team that steered the institution through the challenge of closing a significant operating budget deficit, implementing a plan that produced balanced budgets and restored fiscal integrity while maintaining the institution’s academic and co-curricular excellence. At Bucknell, she managed the university’s $264 million annual budget and endowment of more than $1 billion.
A certified public accountant, Petula holds a master's degree in business administration from Villanova University and a bachelor's degree in business administration from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She also has extensive experience on boards of directors for a variety of economic development, health care and arts organizations, most recently serving as a board member for the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry.