ITEM PHOTO BY GAYLA CAWLEY
Cheryl Herrick-Stella signed a one-year contract as Swampscott’s new accountant.
By GAYLA CAWLEY
SWAMPSCOTT — A three-month vacancy in the town accountant position has been filled with the hiring of Cheryl Herrick-Stella, the former accounting assistant for the town of Ipswich.
Former Town Accountant David Castellarin resigned for personal reasons in April, creating a vacancy in what Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald called an important position, the regulatory authority of Swampscott’s fiduciary responsibilities.
Herrick-Stella signed a one-year contract, with two, one-year extensions, at a salary of $80,000.
Recommended by Fitzgerald and approved by the Board of Selectmen last week, the hiring came after a unanimous recommendation from a screening committee that also included Naomi Dreeben, chairwoman of the Board of Selectmen, assistant town administrators Gino Cresta and Ronald Mendes, and a consultant working for the town. Fitzgerald said there were 21 applicants and three finalists.
“For the last many months, we have been without a town accountant,” Fitzgerald said. “That does really present some organizational challenges, but she did impress us all with her leadership and her ability to manage risk and also work with municipal finances.
“We’re a small community, but we share these responsibilities to really find great employees that can contribute to the team and the responsibilities that we have. I do believe that we have found somebody with terrific skills and abilities. I do think that working with Ron and Gino and our leadership team, Cheryl will be able to add immediate value.”
Herrick-Stella, 36, a Beverly resident, was born and raised in Gloucester. Her first day in her new position was on Monday. Before accepting the job with Swampscott, she spent more than a year as assistant town accountant for Ipswich, and before that, worked for a company in Boston, Cambridge Associates — an investment management, consulting, and research firm — for more than 12 years.
“Cheryl actually has a great progression from a career standpoint,” Fitzgerald said. “She’s consistently proven herself to really contribute and be recognized for professional growth. I think her leadership, her ability to command a focus on some of the details that would help her be successful certainly stood out.
“She has a lot of energy. I also think she has a lot of enthusiasm for public service and for helping others. This is public service and that desire to really make a difference in other people’s lives really shines through. And those are the qualities that I think we want to hold up as our values in public service.”
Herrick-Stella, said she played many soccer games in Swampscott in the past, mostly on the losing side. She said she was drawn to work for what she called a lovely town, a beautiful seaside community that has a lot to offer.
She said she held many positions with Cambridge Associates, starting at the company right out of college. Herrick-Stella holds a Bachelor’s degree in finance from Bentley University and is currently pursuing her MBA in accounting at Endicott College.
At Cambridge Associates, Herrick-Stella said she started out in an entry level position analyzing financial statements for private equity and venture capital funds. She moved on to doing client reporting there, working her way up into management and then became a director of that group, overseeing more than 65 people, and running training, recruiting and professional development programs.
She relocated to Virginia for two years, setting up the entire group in Arlington. She then moved back to Boston, and started working for the newly formed Enterprise Risk within the same company. Eventually, she shifted her career focus, and landed a job in municipal government.
“I was looking for something — I have a young son. He’s three years old,” said Herrick-Stella. “It was kind of hard to be doing the Boston commute from Beverly and so, I started thinking about a bit of a career shift and wanted to really find something where I felt like I was using my skills and my abilities — my finance and business background — but in something where I felt like I was giving back to my community in some way, shape, or form.
“So, I started looking at hospitals, schools and municipalities, and so, the position opened up in Ipswich. It seemed like it would be a good fit, and so I gave it a shot and really loved it, had a great time there for the past year or so, really helped solidify that this was the career path for me, and where I could find the ability to use my background and my skills in the field that I felt was really helping the citizens of my community.”
Herrick-Stella, who has been married for six years to her husband, Jad Stella, said her focus would be on helping to support Fitzgerald, Cresta, and Mendes, by taking some of the good foundation that’s already been built and helping them to move their initiatives forward. She said her focus would also be on finding out what the priorities are of the residents, who she referred to as her biggest client.
Gayla Cawley can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @GaylaCawley.
