Paul Wycisk is currently the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the National Urban League (‘the League”). Wycisk is a Certified Public Accountant with over thirty-five years of experience in not-for-profit organizations. He has served as the League’s CFO since being hired in 1996. One of his first responsibilities after coming on board was to sell the building that the League then jointly owned with the United Negro College Fund on East 62nd Street in New York and move the League to new, professional and state of the art offices. Wycisk was a key member of the team that creatively marketed and sold the old building. The proceeds of the sale both added millions of dollars to the League’s long term reserves and financed the move to new offices complete with all new equipment, furnishings and fixtures.
Wycisk then headed up the team that found new office space on Wall Street in lower Manhattan and negotiated a deal that included substantial build out allowance for tenant improvements, months of free rent and a below market rental rate. As the Chief Financial Officer, Wycisk has successfully managed the League’s finances over a period of time that has seen the annual budget almost triple in size. The League has achieved modest operating surpluses in each of Wycisk’s sixteen years at the League, along with an increase in cash reserves and net assets. The League has also received over this time clean opinions each year from our outside independent auditors. As a member of the League’s senior management team, he has also played a key role in developing and implementing the overall strategy for the organization.
Prior to coming to the League in 1996, Wycisk was the Director of Finance at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) during a time when their annual budget grew from $4M to $25M. Wycisk was responsible for negotiating favorable lease terms as EDF grew and oversaw design and construction of new offices to accommodate that growth. Prior to EDF, Wycisk worked for Common Cause in Washington, DC. as their Director of Administration and Financial Planning. While in Washington, Wycisk and his partner designed and built a four unit condominium building in the Dupont Circle area and still retains a unit in that building. Wycisk has a Masters of Arts degree from the University of Maine and a Bachelors in accounting from the University of Maryland. He lives in Hells Kitchen, New York City, with his wife and two children who are currently both in college.
