Bob Phelan was appointed chief financial officer of Adtalem Global Education in October 2021. 

Bob Phelan was appointed chief financial officer of Adtalem Global Education in October 2021. 

In his role as chief financial officer, Bob Phelan is responsible for Adtalem’s finance, accounting, treasury, risk management, tax, strategic sourcing, internal audit, real estate and cybersecurity.  

Prior to this appointment, Phelan served as the interim chief financial officer from April 2021 to October 2021. Since joining the company in February 2020, Phelan also served as Adtalem’s vice president and chief accounting officer. In this role, Phelan took responsibility for several critical and strategic financial activities and had primary accountability for the management of the enterprise-wide accounting and reporting function as well as Adtalem’s real estate and strategic sourcing operations. He partnered with senior leadership to ensure priorities were aligned with organization objectives and financial controls. Additionally, he was responsible for preparation and review of consolidated financial statements, SEC and regulatory reporting, and designing and implementing financial controls and systems. 

With more than 30 years in finance, Phelan has significant and progressive accounting and financial experience along with a passion for developing and leading high-profile teams. Prior to Adtalem, he spent more than 23 years advancing through several senior financial and operational business leadership positions at Sears Holding Corporation, where he was most recently senior vice president and corporate controller.  

Phelan began his career at KPMG where he spent nine years in their audit practice. He is a CPA and holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Valparaiso University and an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.