Charles Stewart Mott Foundation announces latest hires and promotions

The Mott Foundation today announced a series of staff changes in its Program and Administrative Group divisions:

• Michael Birchmeier has been promoted to director of Grants Administration and appointed assistant secretary and assistant treasurer.
• Cindy Compeau has been named grants manager.
• Crystal Bright has been promoted to administrative assistant for the vice president — Programs.
• Ashley Johnson has been hired as a grants accountant.
• Brittany Knox has been hired as an accountant with Administrative Services.
• Aria Staffne has joined the Administrative Group as a human resources administrator.
• Ryan Madar, who has been hired as a systems engineer for the Information Technology department.
• Ana Bosque has joined the Education grantmaking team as an administrative assistant.

A certified public accountant, Birchmeier joined the staff of the Mott Foundation in 2014 as grants manager. In that position, he was responsible for supervising staff reviewing domestic and international requests. More recently, he played a key role in the conversion of the Foundation’s grants management software to a more user-friendly online platform. A native and long-time resident of mid-Michigan, Birchmeier joined the U.S. Army out of high school, serving four years of active duty in its Psychological Operations unit. He earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Accounting from Michigan State University in Lansing. Before joining Mott, he worked as a senior audit manager for the Rehmann firm in Saginaw, Michigan.

A Flint-area native, Compeau, was hired in 1999 as a grants accountant for Mott, where she subsequently developed expertise in compliance issues associated with international grantmaking and expenditure responsibility. She is a graduate of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, where she received a bachelor’s degree in Accounting. A certified public accountant, Compeau worked for several large accounting firms and the Genesee County Health Department before joining the Foundation staff.

Bright, who joined the Foundation in 1998 as a part-time administrative assistant in the Human Resources department, began working full-time in 2007 in that same capacity for the Program division.  Most recently, she has provided support services for the Foundation’s Education grantmaking team. A Detroit native, she is a graduate of Cass Technical High School.

Johnson, a life-long Flint resident and 2011 graduate of the University of Michigan-Flint, most recently worked as an associate with Plante Moran, where she specialized in audits of nonprofit clients. A certified public accountant, her primary focus at Mott will be reviewing international grant requests.

A graduate of Michigan’s Saginaw Valley State University, Knox earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration, with a concentration in accounting. Before joining the staff of the Mott Foundation, the Flint native used her accounting skills to help manage the finances of Metro Community Development, a Flint-based housing and community development organization.

A former certified nursing assistant, Staffne worked in the healthcare field while earning her bachelor’s in business administration, with a concentration on human resources, at the University of Michigan-Flint. In her new position, the Flint-area native is responsible for the day-to-day administration of Mott’s Human Resources department and assists the department director with employee recruiting, benefits and compensation.

Prior to joining the Mott Foundation’s Information Technology team, Madar worked in retail — including a stint with a Flint area auction house — while earning his degree in Computer Science at the University of Michigan-Flint. As Mott’s systems engineer, he is responsible for managing the Foundation’s network and back-office servers, as well as maintaining computer equipment.

Bosque, who graduated from Western Michigan University with a dual major in Public Relations and Spanish, is an experienced administrative assistant with more than 12 years in corporate and nonprofit environments. Most recently, she worked in the automotive field as a bilingual sales coordinator and a sales/distribution coordinator.