Christopher E. Sohn, Purdue ’89 is the vice president of business and chief financial officer at Cedarville University. Located in southwest Ohio, Cedarville University has an enrollment of 4,550 undergraduate, graduate, and online students in more than 150 areas of study. Founded in 1887, Cedarville is recognized nationally for its authentic Christian community, rigorous academic programs, strong graduation and retention rates, accredited professional and health science offerings, and high student engagement rankings.
In his role at Cedarville, Chris leads 100 employees and is responsible for finance/accounting, human resources, information technology, physical plant, legal, campus security, the campus bookstore, and all dining facilities on campus.
During his nine-year tenure, Cedarville has experienced an eight-fold increase in year-end surpluses and paid down 96 percent of its long-term debt. Chris oversaw the construction of four new dormitories, two townhouses, a civil engineering lab, a new dining facility, a science lab renovation and a chapel renovation totaling $44 million in capital expenditures. As the chairman of the University Retirement Committee, Chris led a team that performed a complete overhaul of the University’s retirement plan resulting in an open architecture set of diverse, high quality investment options with lower fees for university employees.
In the healthcare space, Chris led a group that introduced a new high deductible healthcare plan option with Health Savings Account for university employees and continues to find innovative ways to provide affordable healthcare for university employees. In addition, Chris is the Treasurer of Cedar Care, LLC which opened a retail pharmacy in town providing a hands-on learning space for Cedarville University School of Pharmacy students, as well as a low-cost source of pharmaceuticals for employees and the local community.
Before joining Cedarville University in 2012, Chris had a sixteen-year career at GE where he most recently served as finance manager for technology and growth at GE Corporate Licensing, where he was the finance leader for $200 million intellectual property licensing and business development organizations. In this role, Chris partnered with operating leaders to grow business through strategic acquisitions and commercialization of technology. Prior to this position, he was the finance, planning and analysis manager for GE Water where he managed all financial analysis, estimating and reporting for a newly acquired $1.1 billion chemical and service business.
Brother Sohn is a strong advocate for the education and growth of young people. At Cedarville, he is involved in the development of new undergraduate and graduate academic programs. Chris served on three mission trips to India and volunteered in cleanup efforts after hurricanes Katrina in New Orleans and Sandy in New York.
Chris earned a BS in industrial management and minor in industrial engineering from Purdue University. He also earned an MBA from Indiana University.
Chris is a member of the Indiana Theta Chapter of Phi Delta Theta and comes from a long line of family members who are also brothers in the bond, including his father Bob, Purdue ’63, brother Rob, Purdue ’87, Uncle Andy, Cincinnati ’58, Uncle Bill, Indiana ’58, and Cousin Eric USC ’91.
