Meet your new president-elect and Executive Board members.

GFOA is governed by the 18-member Executive Board, which consists of 15 members-at-large serving staggered three-year terms, the current president, the previous year's president, and the president-elect. At the association's annual business meeting in San Antonio in June, members voted for a slate of nominees for president-elect and five new members of the GFOA Executive Board. Each of these individuals is profiled below.

PRESIDENT-ELECT THOMAS J. GLASER

Chief Financial Officer

Cook County, Illinois

During his nine years as a member of GFOA, Thomas Glaser has served the association in a number of leadership capacities. For six years he was a member of the Committee on Governmental Debt Management, serving as vice chair for three of those years. Glaser contributed a chapter on financial system selection strategies to the GFOA book ERP and Financial Management Systems, and wrote an article on the same topic for Government Finance Review. He was a member of the local conference committee for the 2000 annual conference in Chicago, and has participated as a moderator and a speaker for several concurrent sessions. Glaser represented GFOA at the Muni Council meeting in Washington, D.C.

At Cook County, Glaser has seen the county's bond ratings upgraded, implemented a new financial system, structured refundings to save more than $42 million, used GFOA YieldAdvantage to increase bids and yields on the investment of bond proceeds, and implemented performance measures as part of the annual budget process. He is chair of the CFO Roundtable of Chicago Governments, and serves on committees for the Healthcare Management Association and the National Association of Counties. Glaser holds undergraduate degrees in finance and international business from Northern Illinois University and an MBA from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Goals for GFOA:

* Focus on financial leadership to promote enhanced participation and sharing of information to develop policies and practices to improve operating efficiencies and lower costs

* Promote increased utilization of technology by state and local governments

* Assist GFOA in maintaining its strong financial base

* Begin an initiative to improve public retirement planning

* Maintain vigilance over attempts to increase accounting regulations without discernable benefits

KATHLEEN CLARKE BUCH

Finance Director

Town of Darien, Connecticut

A GFOA member for 19 years, Kathleen Clarke Buch is the chair of the Committee on...