CHICAGO — The chief financial officer of Ohio State University, who helped craft the university's first-of-its-kind lease of its parking system, is leaving to take a job at the Australian company that is leasing the parking system.
OSU chief financial officer Geoffrey Chatas will become an executive at investment firm QIC Global Infrastructure, where he will lead infrastructure business for North America from the firm's New York office.
The firm in 2012 gave OSU a $483 million upfront payment in exchange for a 50-year lease of the parking system. It won the bid along with partner LAZ Parking over two other final bids, all of which came in over the university's estimate of $375 million.
Chatas told the Columbus Dispatch that his move has nothing to do with the parking transaction.
"I spent a long time in the infrastructure industry, and so I've known people in the business," he told the paper. "It wasn't that transaction. It was the long relationships I've had with people that led to my expertise being requested as the next step for this company."
Before joining OSU in early 2010, Chatas was managing director of the infrastructure investments fund at JP Morgan Asset Management.
"Geoff has challenged Ohio State to look at many of our resources in a new way, all for the benefit of our faculty, students and staff in support of our academic mission," university president Michael Drake said in a statement. "We wish Geoff the very best in this next chapter of his career."
Chatas also oversaw the university's century-bond sale in 2011, which made the it the first public university to float 100-year debt.
