Chris Rau

Since 2015, when he began leading the Minneapolis College’s finance and operations areas, Chris Rau has helped drastically improve the institution’s fund balance and overall financial position.

With a strong commitment to financial sustainability, Chris (more commonly referred to as “Rau”) approaches his work by building transparent, equitable processes that allocate funding to areas supporting student success. He has championed for resources to advance the College’s progressive path toward cultural fluency.

As a former student of the Humanities and with his strong belief in the role of higher education in the betterment of society, he has the unique ability to identify opportunities that achieve results for students while maintaining fiscal prudency. With his leadership, academic institutions across the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system have improved their students’ experience registering for classes by creating an autoreply solution. In addition, Chris led a system-wide initiative modifying policies to increase students’ access to course materials at lower costs.

The Facilities Initiative Planning Subcommittee Chris developed encourages employees to submit requests to improve campus facilities. This empowers experts from all areas of the campus to identify and elevate suggested improvements. He’s known among his colleagues as always being willing to listen to new ideas and for his sense of humor that promotes collaboration and thoughtful decision-making.

A licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Chris served as the College’s Director of Finance and Accounting Manager and taught Accounting courses at Minneapolis College. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of St. Thomas and completed his master’s degree in Business Administration at the University of Minnesota.