“Give Every Day Your Best.”
Todd Kostjuk, CPA, MBA, is an accomplished chief financial officer, business executive, educator, and board leader whose career reflects more than 25 years of achievement across finance, accounting, operations, strategic growth, real estate, construction, higher education, and organizational transformation. Throughout his career, Todd has developed a reputation for combining disciplined financial stewardship with an operator’s perspective, helping organizations translate ambitious goals into measurable performance. His experience spans private industry, publicly traded companies, higher education, and board governance, giving him a broad understanding of how organizations create value, manage risk, allocate capital, and build sustainable platforms for growth. At the center of his leadership philosophy is a straightforward personal motto: “Give every day your best.” It reflects his belief that lasting success comes from preparation, accountability, continuous improvement, and a commitment to excellence.
Todd currently serves as Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Administration at The Master’s University, where he has played an instrumental role in a period of substantial institutional growth. During his executive tenure, the university grew annual revenue approximately threefold to $112 million while increasing profitability twentyfold, with assets expanding from approximately $95 million to $325 million. Todd has helped guide the organization through this growth by bringing together financial strategy, operational discipline, capital planning, investment oversight, and long-range decision-making. His responsibilities extend well beyond traditional finance, encompassing leadership of teams and functions including accounting, finance, investments, plant operations, financial aid, food service, campus safety, and emergency operations management.
Capital strategy and disciplined investment have been important components of Todd’s leadership at The Master’s University. He oversaw approximately $110 million in capital investments supporting academic programs, facility expansion, renovations, and energy-efficiency initiatives designed to strengthen both institutional performance and competitive positioning. He also worked with investment bankers and an SEC brokerage firm on the issuance of $75 million in tax-exempt bonds and the establishment of a $25 million line of credit. By helping strengthen the university’s financial position to investment-grade quality, Todd demonstrated his ability to connect operational execution with sophisticated financing strategy, institutional credibility, and long-term capital requirements.
Todd complements his executive responsibilities with a longstanding commitment to education as an Associate Professor of Business at The Master’s University. Since 2015, he has taught accounting and other business courses while bringing practical executive experience directly into the classroom. His students have consistently performed at a high level, with accounting students ranking among the top performers in California for CPA examination pass rates and securing opportunities with leading accounting firms. Todd is particularly passionate about making complex financial concepts understandable and relevant, and he has spoken to student audiences on personal finance. This ability to move comfortably between executive leadership, technical finance, teaching, and public speaking is a distinctive part of his professional profile.
Before joining The Master’s University, Todd spent more than eight years with Public Storage, one of the world’s most prominent publicly traded real estate companies, serving as Head of Accounting and Finance and Controller for the Real Estate Division. As a member of the Real Estate executive management team, he worked alongside senior leadership on acquisitions, development, capital expenditures, forecasting, and financial performance. Todd helped underwrite and execute the acquisition of 244 properties representing approximately $2.5 billion in purchase value and 19 million square feet. He also introduced project reporting and cost-control systems supporting a construction development pipeline of approximately $507 million and four million square feet, providing leadership with stronger visibility into project economics and execution.
His work at Public Storage further demonstrated an ability to turn financial information into practical operational advantage. Todd was responsible for forecasting annual capital expenditures and repair and maintenance spending across a portfolio encompassing approximately 150 million square feet, with annual spending of roughly $125 million. Through improved key performance indicators and management reporting tools, the organization reduced its annual spend rate by approximately $10 million. He also developed incentive structures and enhanced reporting for commercial, cell tower, and billboard leasing activities, contributing to a 40 percent increase in revenue. These accomplishments reflect a recurring theme in Todd’s career: finance is not simply a reporting function, but a strategic instrument for improving decisions, accountability, profitability, and enterprise value.
Earlier in his career, Todd held senior leadership positions with Gothic Landscape, where he became a key member of the corporate executive management team as the company grew to approximately 1,800 employees and approached $200 million in annual revenue. Serving in controller and corporate operations leadership capacities, he helped establish stronger project management practices, financial controls, budgeting systems, cash-flow disciplines, and performance metrics. When an underperforming San Diego division required intervention, Todd stepped into an interim general management role overseeing approximately 200 employees. He developed and executed a turnaround plan that improved EBITDA by 12 percentage points, moved the division from last to first in client satisfaction, and strengthened its management team. He also standardized a fleet of more than 400 vehicles, generating approximately $1.5 million in annual operating savings.
Todd’s foundation in transactions, financial reporting, audit, and capital markets was established through roles at The Vantra Group and KPMG. At Vantra, he was recruited to help position the business for either an acquisition or an initial public offering and worked with venture capitalists and investment bankers through the eventual acquisition process. As Director of Finance, he was responsible for finance and accounting activities and for preparing GAAP financial statements for boards, investors, bankers, and prospective acquirers. Earlier at KPMG, Todd gained rigorous audit experience across balance-sheet and income-statement analysis, consolidated financial statements, SEC reporting, risk assessment, internal controls, and industry analysis while serving clients across real estate, hospitality, retail, financial services, consumer products, and other industries.
His academic and professional credentials reinforce the breadth of this experience. Todd earned his MBA from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with emphases in accounting, finance, and management from The Master’s University. He graduated summa cum laude with a 3.98 business GPA, received both baseball and academic scholarships, and was recognized as Accounting Graduate of the Year. A California Certified Public Accountant, Todd passed all four sections of the CPA examination in a single sitting, underscoring the technical discipline that has supported his progression from public accounting into senior executive leadership.
Board governance is a natural extension of Todd’s executive career. He has served on the board of an exchange-traded fund with more than $100 million in assets under management, including service as Chair of the Audit Committee, and has also contributed to nonprofit boards and committee leadership. These roles complement his extensive experience working directly with boards, investors, executive teams, investment bankers, financial institutions, and other stakeholders. He brings particular value to organizations navigating growth, capital allocation, financial oversight, acquisitions, operational improvement, governance, risk, and organizational change. His combination of CFO-level expertise and hands-on operating leadership enables him to examine an organization through both fiduciary and enterprise-building lenses.
Todd’s board interests span real estate, construction, education, nonprofit organizations, private equity, and technology, while he remains open to opportunities across other industries where his experience can create meaningful value. His professional perspective has also been shaped by international exposure in Africa and Europe, and he speaks Spanish in addition to English. Outside his executive responsibilities, Todd enjoys sports, the outdoors, and continued learning. His commitment to professional excellence is complemented by a strong interest in serving others, developing people, and helping organizations become stronger than they were when he joined them.
At this stage of his career, Todd is particularly motivated to expand his board and advisory impact by applying lessons learned from decades of building, scaling, financing, and improving organizations. He understands that strong governance requires more than reviewing financial statements or approving plans; it requires asking thoughtful questions, understanding the underlying economics of a business, anticipating risk, supporting management while maintaining appropriate oversight, and remaining focused on long-term value creation. Todd enjoys the pursuit of winning, but defines it through disciplined execution, continuous improvement, strong teams, and sustainable organizational performance. He seeks opportunities where his experience can help leadership teams sharpen strategy, strengthen financial and operational foundations, and convert opportunity into enduring results.
Todd ultimately brings together the rigor of a CPA, the strategic perspective of a CFO, the practical instincts of an operator, the curiosity of an educator, and the governance perspective of an experienced board leader. His career demonstrates an ability to move successfully between complex financial transactions and day-to-day operational realities, while maintaining a consistent focus on people, performance, accountability, and improvement. Whether guiding a major capital program, evaluating an acquisition, turning around an underperforming operation, teaching the next generation of business professionals, or advising a board, Todd approaches leadership with the same underlying standard: give every day your best and leave the organization stronger as a result.
Character:
Todd leads with accountability, discipline, integrity, and a genuine commitment to continuous improvement, consistently holding himself and the organizations he serves to high standards. His “Give every day your best” philosophy is reflected in a career centered on responsible stewardship, service, team development, and measurable organizational improvement.
Knowledge:
He combines deep expertise in accounting, finance, FP&A, treasury, capital planning, investments, risk management, real estate, construction, operations, acquisitions, and governance with more than 25 years of practical executive experience. His CPA and MBA credentials, public accounting foundation, teaching experience, and leadership across public, private, and educational organizations give him an unusually broad perspective on the financial and operational drivers of enterprise performance.
Strategic:
Todd has repeatedly demonstrated an ability to connect financial strategy with operational execution, whether helping triple university revenue, overseeing more than $100 million in capital investments, participating in billions of dollars of real estate acquisitions, or leading a successful divisional turnaround. He approaches strategy through disciplined analysis, thoughtful capital allocation, performance measurement, risk awareness, and a sustained focus on creating long-term organizational value.
Communication:
An experienced communicator who has worked effectively with boards, executive teams, investors, bankers, employees, students, and other stakeholders throughout his career. As both a senior executive and university professor with public-speaking experience in personal finance, he is skilled at translating complex financial and business concepts into clear, practical insights that support informed decisions.
