The Select Board have hired a new finance director with long experience in both municipal and corporate finance in Brenda Fox Howard.
Fox Howard, currently living in Swanzey, said she and her husband have always had a desire to retire in New Hampshire from their native Connecticut, both for love of the landscape and the outdoors, and to be near family they have in the Lakes region.
Fox Howard said she has about 15 years of finance experience, both working as a finance director for multiple towns, and as a budget analyst for the pharmaceutical company Pfizer and as a production material analyst for DOW Chemical. She’s also been a analyst for state police.
“She had a strong financial background,” said Select Board member Barbara Miller. “We were very impressed with that. We’re very lucky to have her.”
She had the opportunity to try multiple careers in her life, said Fox Howard, but found that she liked finance the best.
Many of her jobs before taking the finance position in Peterborough involved being what she termed a “fix-it lady” going in to turn bad financial situations around.
“It’s good to come into a job where I’m in a good starting place,” she said.
Fox Howard said that she and her husband of 22 years enjoy gardening and kayaking, and generally being outdoors with their three rescued Labrador mixes.
Her husband is currently still in Connecticut, and will join Fox Howard upon the sale of their former house, at which point, she said, they plan to buy a property in Peterborough or close by.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.