Ken Westphal

Kenneth C. Westphal grew up in West Des Moines, Iowa. He attended Iowa State University for one year before transferring and earning a Bachelor of Science in accounting from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg in 1974. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

Westphal began his career as an auditor at Coopers & Lybrand, then one of the "Big Eight" accounting firms, and later worked as a consultant at Adrian, Helgeson & Co., where his clients included Lutheran colleges such as Gustavus. He joined Gustavus Adolphus College in 1988 as Vice President for Business Affairs, a role that evolved into Vice President for Finance and Treasurer. Over a tenure of more than 27 years, he oversaw the college's budgeting, investments (including endowment matters), college finances, and risk management.

He is most widely credited for steering the college's financial recovery after the March 1998 tornado that damaged virtually every building on the St. Peter campus, and for leading the financing behind major capital projects including Beck Hall and the first renovation of the Nobel Hall of Science. He was also identified in nonprofit filings as the principal officer of the Greater Gustavus Fund, a supporting foundation for the college. Westphal retired in 2015; at that year's May 31 commencement, President Rebecca Bergman conferred on him an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree, with a citation praising his integrity, loyalty, and financial acumen.

No personal startup-investment thesis could be verified for Ken Westphal. His professional "investment" work was institutional rather than venture in nature:

• Managed college finances, budgeting, endowment/investment oversight, and enterprise risk as a nonprofit CFO-equivalent, not deployment of angel capital into companies.
• Directed capital-project financing (e.g., Beck Hall, Nobel Hall of Science renovation) and post-disaster financial reconstruction after the 1998 tornado.
• If a founder is seeking a startup angel investor, this record does not fit that profile.