American Campus Communities announced it is advancing its succession plan with a series of internal promotions to ensure the company is fully exploiting the breadth of executive talent available to further advance the company's long-term strategic business plan. Effective immediately, the company is separating the roles of President and Chief Executive Officer, with Bill Bayless remaining as CEO and Jim Hopke, Chief Operating Officer, being promoted to the position of President. In this role, Jim will continue to report directly to the CEO and provide executive oversight of day-to-day business operations, advance the company's asset and portfolio management functions, and focus on furthering the company's best-in-class operating platform including strategic oversight of the company's Next Gen systems development working closely with Chief Technology Officer Jorge de Cardenas. Also effective immediately, Jennifer Beese, Executive Vice President of Operations, Marketing, and Leasing is being promoted to the position of Chief Operating Officer and will continue to report directly to Mr. Hopke. Ms. Beese will continue to provide executive oversight of marketing, leasing and property operations, and functional support services. She will also assume executive responsibility for human resources, corporate administration and company culture. Hopke and Beese have a combined 30 plus years with the company and have been leading its operations since 2014.
In addition, Jon Graf will step down as Chief Financial Officer on March 31, 2017 and will be retiring from the company on June 30, 2017. Graf has been an integral part of the executive team, having joined the company in conjunction with its IPO in 2004; initially serving as Corporate Controller, being promoted to Chief Accounting Officer in 2005, and ultimately serving as Chief Financial Officer since 2007. He will continue to work closely with his successors in the finance and accounting departments during the upcoming transition period. Daniel Perry, EVP of Corporate Finance & Capital Markets, who for years has been the company's lead executive interacting with investors, analysts and the banking community will be promoted to Chief Financial Officer, effective March 31, 2017. Perry joined the company in 2005 from Citigroup where he had worked on the company's IPO. Effective immediately, Kim Voss, EVP and Controller, who joined the company in 2004 from AMB, is being promoted to the position of Chief Accounting Officer reporting directly to the CFO. Voss has provided executive oversight of the company's corporate accounting, property accounting and public company reporting since her promotion to EVP in May of 2015.