Goshen College hires Alvarez and Bontrager as vice presidents

Goshen College President Rebecca Stoltzfus announced today that she has hired two new members to her senior leadership team.

Jim Alvarez, a 1984 Goshen College graduate, will be the vice president for finance, serving as the college’s chief financial officer. And Ben Bontrager, a 2019 graduate of the Goshen College Master of Business Administration program, will be in a new role as the vice president for operations, serving as the chief operating officer. Bontrager will begin January 10, and Alvarez will begin March 1, 2022.

“I am thrilled to have both of these exceptional leaders join our senior administrative team as we implement our new strategic plan and advance our mission and vision,” Stoltzfus said. “They are both highly respected individuals in this community and I am excited for how they will help us address the opportunities and challenges that we currently face in new and strategic ways.”

Jim Alvarez

Alvarez has been senior vice president and chief financial officer since 2006 at Everence, a faith-based financial services organization headquartered in Goshen. He previously announced his retirement from that position as of December 2021. Before joining Everence, he served as director of Goshen College’s Family Business Program and assistant professor of business for two years, after an international business career in Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Texas in food processing and international grain markets. Alvarez is a 1984 Goshen College graduate with an economics major, and he received his Master of Business Administration degree with a focus in marketing from Penn State University in 1988. He serves on the board of directors for Goshen Health, MEDA (Mennonite Economic Development Associates) and Mennonite Health System in Puerto Rico. He and his spouse Diane Beam, a 1984 Goshen College graduate, attend Berkey Avenue Mennonite Fellowship. They have two adult daughters — Sara Alvarez Waugh, a 2012 Goshen College graduate, and Corine Graber Alvarez, a 2014 Goshen College graduate.

Ben Bontrager

Bontrager has served as chief financial officer at Goshen Health since 2018 and worked as director of financial services before that. Previously, he worked at LeMaster Steel Erectors for 11 years, first as chief financial officer and later as vice president of operations. Born and raised in Goshen, Bontrager studied information systems as an undergraduate student at Bethel University in Mishawaka, graduating in 2002, and received his Master of Business Administration degree from Goshen College in 2019. He served on the board of directors for the Center for Healing and Hope in Goshen from 2017 to 2021. He is married to Jen Bontrager and they have three sons – Isaac (a Goshen College student), Jesse and Jacob. They attend Assembly Mennonite Church in Goshen.