Financial Services and Operations

Julie Seppala

Julie Seppala

Contact

  • Associate Vice President for Finance
  • Treasurer, Michigan Tech Fund

Biography

Julie H. Seppala has served as the Associate Vice President for Finance since 2017, as the Executive Director of Financial Services & Operations from 2013 to 2017, after holding several management positions at Michigan Tech since 1994. Seppala currently serves as the Treasurer of the Michigan Tech Fund and oversees financial functions of the University and the Michigan Tech Fund; including financial reporting, investment and treasury management, bond issuance and compliance, accounting functions of accounts payable, accounts receivable, property, purchasing, travel and tax; and oversees all audits conducted by external auditors. Prior to coming to Michigan Tech, Seppala worked at Northern Michigan University as an Accountant and was responsible for their grant and contract accounting and assisted in overseeing the accounts payable functions.

Links of Interest

 

Specialties

  • Bond issuance and compliance
  • Treasury Management
  • Facilities and Administrative Rate (F&A) and Fringe Benefit rate proposal submissions and negotiations
  • Utilizes LEAN/continuous improvement principles and tools for process improvement initiatives

About Julie

  • For the first 20 plus years of Julie’s career at Michigan Tech was in research administration, where she was provided the opportunity to participate in providing administrative and compliance guidance to the dedicated faculty and staff regarding post award and pre-award activities. During her time in research administration Julie has participated in: a 4-year national pilot program to implement a new certification of payroll expenses, which resulted in revisions to federal grant and contract regulations to allow universities across the nation to implement project payroll certifications to document time charged federal grants and contract; the Lean Facilitator training program and was an early adopter of the Lean principles and methods; the finance software conversion; the development of Universities first Disclosure Statement, a federal requirement to document the accounting system for direct and indirect costs on externally funded research. Seppala is a native of the Copper Country and when not working, she enjoys spending time at the lake with her family and friends.