2019 Executive Excellence Awards: Bill Hallerman, Catholic Community Services

This article appears in print in the February 2019 issue. See more about the winners of the 2019 Executive Excellence Awards here. Click here for a free subscription.

With responsibility for a $30 million budget, 400 employees and 22,000 customers, Bill Hallerman is every bit a corporate executive, but his job comes with some features other execs dont deal with. Catholic Community Services, for which Hallerman is agency director, operates shelters and day centers, provides housing assistance and offers social services to a sister agency. All are part of the churchs efforts to deal with the growing and pressing problems of poverty and homelessness.

Hallerman didnt come from a business background. His masters degree is in theology with a concentration on social justice. Instead, he learned from the ground up, working with the poor and managing small shelters.

As the homeless crisis has grown and the response has needed to grow, I found myself having more and more work organizationally and management-wise to improve our responses and our systems, Hallerman says. The techniques he uses to do that are straight out of the corporate playbook. Were more data driven than ever, he says. Were willing to pivot to what the data tell us is working.

And just like other corporate executives, Hallermans job is to ensure Catholic Community Services stays focused on its core mission. One of the great gifts we have is tremendous people who are incredibly committed to this work but are also really creative, he adds. My job is to take care of the culture of this place.