Fulton, Mo. – Dr. Jeremy Moreland, President of William Woods University (WWU), today announced the appointment of Charles Cansler of Hampton, Virginia as the University’s new Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Cansler’s first day on campus will be December 2, 2024.
Cansler joins the WWU administration with more than 30 years of executive leadership, accounting, business, information systems, and consulting experience. His career includes more than 24 years of Higher Education finance and administration leadership with a proven track record of driving continuous improvement and optimizing the Higher Education business enterprise. In his new cabinet-level role at WWU, he will be responsible for the development and management of the University’s operating budget, including directing the institution’s financial planning and accounting practices and its relationship with donors and the financial community.
A veteran of executive level positions at four institutions of higher education, Cansler comes to The Woods from Hampton University, a private university with an enrollment of approximately 4,600 students located in Hampton, Virginia, where he has been serving as Senior Vice President for Business Operations and Finance. In his role at Hampton, Cansler collaborated with senior leadership to provide overall strategic vision to develop the institution, evaluate finance and funding strategies, and effectively communicate and build relationships with the university’s governing board, government, foundations, businesses and donors.
Prior to his time at Hampton, Cansler served as Vice President of Finance and Business at The Citadel, a public military college in Charleston, South Carolina, adding to a career of strengthening universities that included serving as Vice President for Finance and Administration at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock and as Controller at North Carolina State University. Cansler also brings to William Woods several years experience at Oracle, Inc., one of the largest vendors in the enterprise information technology (IT) market, where he served as a Higher Education expert. He also founded a boutique information technology and business process reengineering consulting firm that was an Oracle partner working at ACC, Big Ten, Big Twelve, SEC and Pac Ten schools as well as many smaller institutions.
A native of New Orleans, Cansler received his Master of Business Administration from Baylor University, a Bachelor of Science in Management from Georgia Institute of Technology, and a post-baccalaureate of Accounting and Graduate Taxation from Georgia State University.
