Voices: Hector Silva
Meet Empowering UF Change Agent Hector Silva, Director of Finance in the College of Education.
Hector Silva has attended discovery, design and customer confirmation sessions with peers from across the university. As you’ll see, this isn’t his first academic technology transformation!
We hear you have experience with other projects to modernize university platforms?
I’ve spent 26 years in higher ed, spanning three universities. This is also my third modern Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation since 2016. I was involved in Workday HCM and Oracle Cloud HCM and finance implementations.
Tell us about your role in the UF College of Education.
I serve as the chief business officer, acting as a strategic advisor and operational leader, providing comprehensive financial oversight, and serving as the main liaison between the institution and the college. I assist the Dean with strategic and tactical initiatives, and ensure financial health, regulatory compliance and operational efficiency.
How have you been involved in Empowering UF?
I am privileged to be selected as one of the College Liaisons providing input in planning, architecture and configuration activities so far. In collaboration with the other liaisons, I provide an ‘in the trenches’ perspective and insights into finance and cross-functional areas related to current versus future business processes and workday functionality. Together, we ensure that the needs of colleges, departments, centers and other academic/research units are kept at the forefront of the Empowering UF initiative.
How do you feel about Workday for UF?
This transition presents a unique opportunity that only happens every 20 years or so to align our business processes with best practices, hopefully reducing unnecessary complexity and non-value-added steps.
This transition offers the entire finance, operational, HR and administrative staff community the chance to collaboratively build a new, shared foundation. All team members — from the most experienced to the newest — will benefit from learning together, fostering a sense of unity and mutual support.