January 22, 1999
"I am very pleased to be able to hire someone of Odie's caliber and experience to lead the budget office," said Lindy Eakin, associate provost. "I am sure that she will bring a fresh perspective and help lead us through the transitions of the next few years with new systems and ways of doing business."
Porter succeeds Jan Ferguson, who departed KU last month to become comptroller at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minn.
Porter, who started work on campus Jan. 11, comes to KU from Parade of Shoes, a division of Payless ShoeSource Corporation's international headquarters in Topeka, where she was a financial planner. Her duties at Parade included providing operations and financial reports to senior management and developing sales plans and forecasts for the chain of stores.
She previously was comptroller for three years for the Seneca Nation of Indians, a tribal government in New York state with 800 employees. In that position, she managed an annual budget in excesss of $20 million and drafted the Seneca Nation's first investment management program for its approximately $60 million portfolio. She is a member of the Seneca Nation of Indians, Alleghany reservation. Her husband, Robert B. Porter, associate professor of law and director of the Tribal Law and Government Center at KU, was the Seneca Nation's attorney general.
Odie Porter, who also worked for Wells Fargo Bank in California for four years, holds a master's of business administration degree in finance and international business from KU and a bachelor's degree from California State University at Hayward.
A Lawrence resident, she serves on the Lawrence Indian Center board of directors.
"I am delighted to join the university community, and I look forward to the new and exciting challenges ahead," she said.
Story by Todd Cohen, University Relations, (785) 864-8858 or tcohen@ukans.edu