Metro interim chief operating officer Andrew Scott announced today that he has selected Brian Kennedy to serve as the agency’s next chief financial officer.
Kennedy has been the interim CFO since March when his predecessor, Tim Collier, left for a similar role at Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue.
“We had a really strong pool of candidates, both local and national, but Brian rose to the top,” said Scott, himself the former director of the City of Portland Budget Office. “Brian’s experience in our finance department, knowledge of Metro operations, and focus on equity and innovation set him apart.”
Kennedy came to Metro in 2010 as a finance manager in the Parks and Environmental Services Department. In 2014, he was promoted to assistant finance director, and in 2016, he moved back to Metro’s parks department to improve financial management practices in the implementation of Metro’s natural areas bonds and levies.
“We needed to improve our capital project management and oversight, and I was excited to do that work,” Kennedy said.
He is returning to the finance department because he enjoys the full scope of its work.
“I missed being able to see what’s going on in the whole agency,” he said. “(Finance) plays a role in everything Metro does, and as somebody who’s a deep down government geek that is really appealing to me.”
Kennedy is a graduate of Willamette University, and later earned a masters of public administration at PSU. He started his career as an urban planner before taking a job as an analyst at the City of Hillsboro Finance Department.
“There’s a lot of work we can do in the finance department to be more efficient and effective and help the organization,” Kennedy said.