Rocco Luiere was eager to work at the University of Oregon. The new associate dean for finance at the School of Architecture & Allied Arts packed up his home in Las Vegas and was settled in Eugene just two weeks after he accepted a job offer at the UO.
Luiere was ready for a change. Since 2006, he had directed financial operations for gaming, lodging and entertainment companies in Las Vegas. Prior to that, he managed finances in the telecom industry in New York.
“I love strategic planning, I like numbers, I like dealing with people, but as time went on, performing those functions in a for-profit environment offered me little more than a paycheck,” he says. “After a while, I had to come to grips with the fact that my original career path didn’t ring true for me anymore.”
Higher education became Luiere’s top choice for achieving a balance between a career that could offer great challenge and one that could supply great meaning. “Higher ed institutions are huge, complicated entities that drive both societal advancement and equity. I really wanted to be part of that.”
So he embarked on a new job search, soon spotting the vacancy announcement at Oregon.
After a half year at A&AA, Luiere says, “I’m the happiest I’ve been in a job in I can’t tell you for how long.”
To read more about Luiere and his migration to the UO, read a recent story from Architecture and Allied Arts.
Luiere manages A&AA’s business affairs, which he defines as “people, processes, and resources.” Given the breadth of each of those three areas, his day-to-day duties can vary widely.
“If you walk in here one day I’ll tell you my job has a lot to do with budgeting," he says. "If you walk in a different day I’ll tell you it has a lot to do with process engineering, and another day it’ll have to do with implementing the collective bargaining agreement.”
Asked how his experience in gaming and telecom translates to higher education, Luiere notes that all three are “asset-intensive industries."
- by Marti Gerdes, UO School of Architecture and Allied Arts