Thomas Hollister

Thomas J. Hollister is a veteran financial executive with roughly a 35-to-40-year career in banking and energy before leading Harvard's finances. He is a graduate of Amherst College and earned his M.B.A. from Boston University (Questrom School of Business). He began his banking career in 1979 at Bank of Boston, working in commercial banking and commercial real estate before rising to executive vice president of consumer and small-business banking.

In 1998 he was named President of Citizens Bank of Massachusetts, then the second-largest bank in the commonwealth and part of Citizens Financial Group, overseeing banking operations, regulatory relations, and public affairs during a period of rapid growth. He later served as Vice Chairman of Citizens Financial Group, relocating to Chicago to lead Charter One Bank through its merger into Citizens. From 2006 to 2013 he was Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Global Partners LP, a Fortune 500 energy midstream logistics and marketing company based in Waltham, Massachusetts, retiring from that role in June 2013.

In May 2015, Harvard named Hollister its Chief Financial Officer and Vice President for Finance, succeeding Daniel Shore. Over eight years he stewarded Harvard's finances through economic expansion, the COVID-19 crisis, and rising market uncertainty — restructuring the University's debt to lower borrowing costs and championing recession-contingency planning. He announced in November 2022 that he would step down and retired at the end of the academic year in June 2023. He has remained connected to Harvard as an academic advisor/affiliate associated with Lowell House and is an annual donor to the University.

Alongside these executive roles, Hollister has been an active board member and civic leader: a long-serving independent director of Brookline Bancorp, Inc. (since 2009, where he chairs the Audit Committee and serves on Risk and Executive committees), Managing Director of Wesquo Capital Partners (a private real estate investment/development fund based in Nantucket), and former board chair of Tufts Medical Center, Wheaton College, and the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. He is also a Proprietor of the Boston Athenæum and a Fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

• Primary "investing" lens is institutional and conservative, not venture. As Harvard's CFO he managed capital structure, debt, cash, and funding strategy — and publicly counseled caution. On his way out in 2023 he warned that "it's time to be very cautious" amid economic turmoil and consistently led recession-contingency planning.
• Private real estate, not startups. His named investment vehicle, Wesquo Capital Partners, is described as a *private real estate development/investment fund* based in Nantucket — a different asset class from seed-stage technology angel investing.
• Public-company bank governance. Through his Brookline Bancorp directorship he focuses on audit, risk, and credit oversight of a regional commercial bank — reflecting deep credit, regulatory, and balance-sheet expertise.
• Mission- and stewardship-driven philanthropy. In his own words: *"What attracted me to Harvard was its mission. I wanted to be of use to this wonderful place,"* and *"Planned giving is an act of stewardship and foresight."* His stated framework values long-term stewardship and prudent risk management over speculative bets.