Town of Hanover announces new Finance Director
December 9th 2022
In Monday night’s Selectboard meeting, Town Manager Alex Torpey announced the appointment of the Town’s new Finance Director. The position was vacated in October when the prior finance director resigned. The town has been without a finance director since then, though has contracted financial consulting assistance to help with critical functions in the meantime.
Over the course of a six-week period, the Town saw 14 applications and performed three rounds of interviews, involving the participation and feedback of seven total Town staff. Three candidates were selected for final interviews which took place in Town Hall in November. The Town indicated an interest in hiring someone who was not just a detail-oriented finance expert, but someone who was passionate about helping transition teams, systems, and organizations to new processes and new practices. All three finalist candidates the Town interviewed were exceptionally well-qualified and could have performed the job.
Out of those three finalists, the Town is excited to announce the hiring of Ellen Bullion. Ellen is a Hanover resident who has over fifteen years of experience managing complex finance operations in the private sector. Previously, Ellen served as the Director of Finance for CLEAResult, an energy efficiency consulting company, where, working with the CFO and SVP Ellen oversaw budgeting for five business units with $250 million of revenue. Most recently, Ellen was the Director of Finance at Nolato GW, a plastics manufacturing company, where she saw oversaw the financial operations for six manufacturing plants.
Ellen will be stepping into Town early/mid-stream in the 2023-2024 budget process. She starts part-time employment this week to begin onboarding, municipal finance training, and getting up to speed on the Town’s budget. She will begin full-time the third week of January to help carry the Town through this year’s annual budget and begin to then implement much needed upgrades to the Town’s internal finance policies, practices, and software systems.
Town Manager Alex Torpey said that “We have a great need to update some of our internal finance processes, implementing more accurate tracking, more transparent reporting, and making a number of policy and process changes that will really help inform our budget decisions in the future. We’re excited for Ellen to help lead some of these new initiatives. She has a passion for understanding and implementing new processes, and our team is excited to welcome her onboard.”
Alex continued that, “Ellen’s long track record of managing and modernizing finance operations in the private sector will serve us well in Hanover. We have a lot to modernize and systemize, and although Ellen (and myself) will both be getting more up to speed on New Hampshire municipal government specific processes, we know that she’ll be able to plug in right away to help us move forward.”
For more information, email Town Manager Alex Torpey or visit the Town's Finance page.