Boulder’s CFO to leave post

BOULDER — Kara Skinner, chief financial officer for the City of Boulder, will leave her city post on Nov. 8 to accept a consulting position at a Florida-based company.

According to the announcement made Thursday by Boulder city manager Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde, Skinner will work remotely as a fiscal director in the government-consulting section of Tampa, Florida-based MGT Consulting.

“It has been an incredible privilege to serve our city for the past seven years, and I am leaving with only the deepest respect for my many talented colleagues and the Boulder community,” Skinner said in a prepared statement. “This decision will allow me to continue to provide strategic counsel in my chosen profession while also letting me spend more time in another role I love, as a grandmother.”

Skinner has served as Boulder’s finance head since June 2022. She originally was hired as deputy finance director in June 2017 and assumed an interim director role in November 2021 before being selected for the ongoing leadership role after a national search.

Under her leadership, the city organization, and the Finance Department in particular, navigated some uncertain and uncharted times, brought on mostly by the COVID-19 pandemic. Skinner also oversaw a three-year incremental effort to adopt a Budgeting for Resilience Equity approach, which is designed to provide greater transparency for the community around program outcomes.

“With strategic acumen and grace, Kara has helped us strike the right balance between recognizing the constraints we face while also serving our community in its day-to-day needs and in its many aspirations. In addition, she has significantly advanced our organization’s capacity for data-informed decision-making,” Rivera-Vandermyde said in a prepared statement. “I am grateful for Kara’s leadership and wish her all the best as she takes this next step in her career.”

Rivera-Vandermyde said she plans to conduct a national search for the city’s next CFO but has asked Joel Wagner, the city’s deputy director of finance, to serve as interim finance director until a permanent leader is named.

“This is a critically important role for our organization both now and as we move into the future,” she said. “I am pleased that Joel has agreed to help guide this team and serve as a key city advisor in the meantime. We are in good hands.”

on Facebook on LinkedIn