Senior Management

Sandi O’Connell, Partner and Vice President of Operations of FAS and Genesis-SMSS, has worked closely with founder and owner, Al Gillis as his daughter and colleague for over 21 years at Financial Aid Services, Inc. After earning her Business Management Degree, Sandi began learning the art of consulting and servicing in an unpredictable Federal Aid environment from the ground, up. Through the 21 years Sandi has been with FAS, she has tackled the numerous and complex Federal regulations that burden schools daily and created a revealing news periodical called FASTimes which keeps schools informed of the changes and issues in the financial aid industry. Sandi has also had numerous opportunities to visit schools in order to audit and review files as well as train a variety of school personnel in the financial aid process. Sandi is a regular at all U.S. Department of Education trainings and looks forward to sharing her knowledge at FAS’ annual seminars.

Ron Berton, Partner and Vice President of Finance of FAS and Genesis-SMSS, has worked closely with founder and owner,  Al Gillis, as his colleague for over 20 years at Financial Aid Services, Inc. After earning his Business Management Degree, Ron ambitiously set out to gain expertise in consulting and servicing in the ever-changing Title IV programs and in school management in general. Through the numerous years Ron has been with FAS, he has visited schools across the U.S. to perform school management assessments, training and compliance audits. He has researched many Federal regulations and clarifications thus establishing a close professional relationship with the U.S. Department of Education. Ron’s most significant achievement has been his heading up and coordinating the design, development and deployment of Genesis-SMSS, currently, “the most talked about” school administrative software. His software design experience also carries over redesigning FAS’ internal FIDO application and school internet based software, FASLine, which FAS provides to schools to process and package Title IV aid.  Ron also spearheaded the design of FAS’ newest web based application, EDGE, which will brings all software into one web package.

Al Gillis, Owner and President of FAS and Genesis-SMSS, possesses 45 years of experience in financial aid and school management. This experience includes acting as Director of Financial Aid at a well known business university in Massachusetts for over 10 years. Then, Al took on the role as Vice President for a large chain of career schools for several years where he was involved in all aspects of the beauty career school industry, In 1980, Al formed his Financial Aid Services, Inc., as a consulting company which has evolved into full third-party servicing and processing including its own school management software, Genesis-SMSS and is now recognized as one of the oldest and largest consulting companies in the country. Many institutions, along with state and Federal agencies continually seek Al’s assistance in all aspects of the school industry including accreditation, Application to the Title IV programs, Annual Compliance Audits and Federal Program Reviews.