City celebrates important milestones during her leadership

City Manager Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde announced today that Chief Financial Officer Kara Skinner will leave the city on Nov. 8 to accept a consulting position that will allow her to work fully remotely and better balance her professional life with family goals.

Skinner has accepted the role of Director – Fiscal in the Government Consulting section of 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. “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 Chief Financial Officer (CFO) since June 2022. She was originally 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 through a national search.

Under her leadership, the city organization, and the Finance Department in particular, has navigated some uncertain and uncharted times, brought on mostly by the COVID-19 pandemic.

As Skinner reflects on her tenure, she has shared that she is most proud of:

  • The Finance team’s dedication and day-to-day hard work to provide exceptional, foundational services to the city organization.
  • The incredible resilience of the entire organization and community through the pandemic.
  • Her role in establishing the need, and setting the vision, for a long-term financial strategy that will build upon realistic, holistic conversations about city service delivery, infrastructure, and facilities – and identify funding strategies to meet these needs.

In addition, Skinner oversaw a three-year incremental effort to adopt a Budgeting for Resilience Equity approach, which will 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. “I am grateful for Kara’s leadership and wish her all the best as she takes this next step in her career.”

Rivera-Vandermyde plans to conduct a national search for the city’s next CFO but has asked Deputy Director of Finance Joel Wagner 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.”

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