The Kabbalah Centre Chief Operating Officer

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

LOS ANGELES, CA/NEW YORK, NY

www.kabbalah.com 

ORGANIZATION

The Kabbalah Centre’s mission is to spread the teaching and wisdom of Kabbalah to the world. The Centre translates and publishes Kabbalistic texts, develops courses, classes, online lectures, books, and audio products and provides one-on-one instruction. With an operating budget of approximately $50 million, a staff of more than 250 and a network of locations in more than 40 cities, the Centre has reached millions of students. The Centre was founded by Rav Yehuda Ashlag in 1922 and is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization headquartered in Los Angeles, CA.

The Centre seeks to ensure that each student is supported in his or her study in a variety of ways. More than 160 committed, passionate individuals (the Chevre) are teaching worldwide, providing instruction in physical locations around the world, by phone, in study groups, and online through Webinars. The Chevre also support self-directed study available in audio format or online. In addition, the Centre also offers the following tools of support and education:

Kabbalah University (ukabbalah.com)

Kabbalah University is an online university providing lectures, courses, and events in English and Spanish. This is an important link for students in 70 countries, who want to study Kabbalah but do not have access to a Kabbalah Centre in their community.

Kabbalah Publishing

Each year the Centre translates and publishes some of the most challenging Kabbalistic texts for advanced scholars including the Zohar, Writings of the Ari, and the Ten Luminous Emanations with Commentary. It synthesizes this wisdom into beginner- and intermediate-level books, which are distributed around the world and published in more than 30 languages.

Kabbalah Museum (kabbalahmuseum.org)

The experts at the Centre gather and preserve original Kabbalistic texts and rare manuscripts and make these texts available online for students and scholars to view. These important texts enable them to continue to lead the way in the education of Kabbalah.

POSITION

The Chief Operating Officer (COO) of TKC will report to the Co-Directors of the Centre, Karen and Michael Berg, serve as an integral member of the senior management team, and play a critical role in strategic planning and executing for the growth and evolution of the organization. S/he will be based either in New York or Los Angeles with extensive travel between the two cities as well as occasional travel to other locations (Miami, London, Israel, Moscow, and Brazil). The COO will be charged with developing and implementing more streamlined and sophisticated policies and procedures within and communication between the accounting/finance, human resources, marketing/communications, programs and IT functions. This is an outstanding opportunity for an innovative and disciplined executive with multi-site operational experience in a fast growing organization. The winning candidate will have a proven track record of creative problem-solving and change management.

REPORTING STRUCTURE

The COO reports to two Co-Directors and will oversee the Marketing/Communications, Programs, Finance, IT, and HR departments with a total head count of approximately 75.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Strategic Vision and Leadership

• Provide guidance and leadership in the development of budgets and ensure consistency in all aspects of financial operations.
• Provide advice on all operational and strategic issues as they arise; provide strategic recommendations to management on financial analysis and projections, cost identification and allocation, and revenue/expenses analysis.
• Help refine the business model, operating plan, and component budgets.
• Support planning initiatives through financial and management information analyses, reports and recommendations.
• Work closely with the management in planning and budgeting for the health of the organization and to create the organizational and programmatic capacity for growth.
• Ensure strong fiduciary guidance and compliance with best practices.

Team Development and Leadership

• Promote a culture of high-performance customer service and continuous improvement that values learning and collaboration.
• Upgrade recruiting efforts and ensure staff is appropriately aligned to responsibilities. Manage any succession planning issues.
• Mentor and develop staff using a supportive and collaborative approach: ensure staff receives timely and appropriate training, assign accountabilities, set objectives, establish priorities, and monitor and evaluate results.

Operational Support and Services

• Strengthen existing or create new operational systems to support responsive, cost effective services by leveraging contemporary information technology, enhancing employee training and development, and/or introducing organizational performance survey tools and measurement standards.
• Elevate synergy throughout the organization by enhancing team building, team morale, collaboration, individual and team accountability, and empowerment of staff.
• Attract, develop, and retain high-performance team members, empowering them to elevate their level of responsibility, span of control, and performance.
• Guide and direct senior management in the implementation of operating plans; regularly appraise and evaluate the results of overall operations including programs and services, and report results to the Co-Directors.
• Maintain clarity and unity of purpose across the organization; ensure efficient resource utilization in light of competing and sometimes conflicting demands from the field; and bolster pride in service, internal as well as external.
• Operate with consideration of financial resources and constraint; have a keen understanding of financial accountability.
• Contribute to the creation of and manage against annual budgets and staffing plans. Monitor staff performance and departmental goal attainment.
• Create, implement, and manage effective financial and operational processes and controls to better track activities (lectures, classes, sales).
• Ensure TKC operates with highly cost efficient and effective systems and processes.
• Provide leadership on and assume accountability for all matters related to systems, processes/procedures, technical support, human resources, legal, and facilities.
• Lead the development of a visionary and effective technology plan that will meet the organization’s needs now and in the future and ensure full integration of all technical systems and support platforms, including hardware, software, and communications.
• Lead human resource efforts, developing strategies and processes to recruit, train, and support an outstanding and diverse staff as well as sustain excellence in the existing staff of the organization.
• Liaise with other functional/departmental/Centre managers to understand all necessary aspects and needs of operational development, and to ensure they are fully informed of operational objectives, purposes, and achievements.
• Ensure activities meet with and integrate with organizational requirements for quality management, health and safety, legal stipulations, environmental policies, and general duty of care.
• Develop benchmarking and performance tracking systems for all operational aspects of TKC.
  Create a real property investment reporting system and develop a property manager role.

Finance/Accounting Operations

• Build a culture of trust and accountability with the teachers, (called Chevre) and leadership and ensure a thorough understanding of all reporting requirements. Gain a keen understanding of the financial needs of the Centres and ensure they understand how to manage financial data. Improve communications between the accounting department and the Centres.
• Provide guidance and leadership to ensure organizational efficiencies are realized and appropriate financial controls and processes in place for ongoing monitoring and review.
• Develop a capital budget plan.
• Working with the Controller, establish and maintain effective financial processes and controls.
• Develop, analyze, present, and interpret financial reports for the Co-Directors and the Centre Directors.
• Advise the Co-Directors on the state of the organization’s financial health.
• Evaluate and modify financial programs and supporting systems as needed, with the goal of creating clear, accurate, and timely forecasts. Institute and strengthen operational reports to identify and control variance.
• Work with TKC’s investment managers to monitor the investment of funds for compliance with investment policies and practices and to achieve the organization’s financial goals.
• Ensure TKC is operating in compliance with all legal and tax regulations and oversee all contractual obligations.

QUALIFICATIONS

• A minimum of 15 years of professional experience, including significant general management experience in a fast growing and/or closely held, multi-site business. Non-profit management desirable, possibly as a board treasurer or finance committee member.
• Undergraduate degree required, advanced degree highly desired.
• Experience working with a family-owned business.
• Recognized success in developing and monitoring systems to manage both internal operations and programmatic work that involve high levels of collaboration between multi-site units.
• Proven success in anticipating, developing, implementing, and monitoring the infrastructure, systems policies, and procedures of a rapidly growing organization. Proven success in breaking down silos.
• An accessible, visible, and flexible management style that inspires trust and confidence in staff to work hard and well together.
• Keen analytic, organizational, and problem solving skills which support and enable sound decision making in a complex organization; demonstrated resourcefulness in setting priorities and guiding investment in people and systems.
• Ability to translate financial data and complex financial concepts to individuals at all levels including finance and non-finance managers.
• Thorough understanding of finance, information systems, and HR; broad experience with the full range of business functions and systems, including strategic development and planning, budgeting, business analysis, finance, information systems, human resources, and marketing.
• Ability to act and react as necessary, even if limited information is available; not afraid to take charge of a situation to ensure any voids are filled.
• Demonstrated high-level business planning skills, ideally in a fast growing and complex environment.
• Outstanding interpersonal skills with an exceptional capacity for managing and leading people; ability to connect staff both on an individual level and in large groups; capacity to enforce accountability, develop and empower top-notch leaders from the bottom up. Strong commitment to developing, recruiting, and retaining team members; the foresight and ability to delegate accordingly; ability to enhance the effectiveness of the organization as a whole.
• Excellent judgment and creative problem solving skills, including negotiation and conflict resolution skills. Operates without emotion and with minimal drama.
• Strong mentoring and coaching experience to a team with diverse levels of expertise.
• Stature, gravitas, and confidence to gain the credibility and respect of long-serving leadership.
• Self-reliant, good problem solver, results oriented.
• Can make decisions in a changing environment and anticipate future needs.
• Excellent and persuasive communicator.
• Energetic, flexible, collaborative and proactive; a team leader who can positively and productively impact both strategic and tactical finance and administration initiatives.
• Ability to operate as an effective tactical as well as strategic thinker. Willing to roll up his/her sleeves; not dependent upon an army of support staff.
• Mature and proactive.
• Direct and persuasive communication skills. Active listener. Extremely transparent and open communicator.
• Strong influencing ability and highly collaborative.
• Excellent leadership skills, with an ability to work collaboratively with diverse groups of people in a multi-site environment.
• Personal qualities of integrity and credibility.

APPLICATION PROCESS

TKC is an Equal Opportunity Employer and encourages candidates of all backgrounds to apply for this position. The successful candidate does not have to be a student of Kabbalah.

TKC’s Search Committee requests that all inquiries, nominations, and applications be directed to TKC’s search firm, The Dubrof Group, at TKCCOO@dubrof.com. Any communication with TKC will be directed to The Dubrof Group. Applications should include a letter of interest and a current resume in WORD. Please indicate in your cover email where you learned of the opportunity. Please note that only those candidates invited for screening will be contacted. NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE.

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