STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — The Austen Riggs Center has appointed finance and technology expert Joseph Coleman as its new chief financial and operations officer, effective Sept. 8. 

 

With over 25 years of leadership experience at JPMorgan Chase, Coleman's arrival fulfills a top priority that Medical Director and CEO Oscar Hills set out when he took the helm of Riggs on July 1: building a leadership partnership that the Center needs to thrive in a highly competitive behavioral health treatment environment. 

 

Coleman's experience at JPMorgan Chase, including 15 years as a managing director, expertise in complex financial and operational initiatives across the firm's Markets Technology and Quantitative Research organizations, partnering with senior stakeholders on major technology and quantitative research investments to strengthen capabilities and controls, drive efficiency, and support strategic decision-making. 

 

"Riggs is proud of its history as a mission-driven, nonprofit institution," said Hills. "At the same time, we are keenly aware of the pressures behavioral health treatment centers face today. In hiring Joe, we've brought on someone with a level of financial expertise that will help guide us as we work to preserve what makes Riggs unique, while positioning us to not just meet, but anticipate, the places where we need to evolve." 

 

Coleman retired from JPMorgan in 2025 and has since been based full-time in Great Barrington. 

 

Hill described the CFOO hire as a major step in a broader effort to strengthen Riggs for the long term and his plans for extending Riggs' clinical model to more patients, growing the online IOP program beyond Massachusetts and Vermont, and pursuing new fundraising relationships.