Bob Phelan

In his role as chief financial officer, Bob Phelan is responsible for Adtalem’s finance, accounting, treasury, tax, internal audit, real estate and Shared Operations Center of Excellence operations.

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 procurement 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 leadership positions at Sears Holding Corporation, where he was most recently senior vice president and corporate controller.

Phelan began his career at KPMG. He is a CPA and holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Valparasio University and an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.