Nanaimo’s new head of finance has an eye to make this city “fiscally resilient.”
Victor Mema is the City of Nanaimo’s new director of finance, replacing Brian Clemens who recently retired after 15 years as head of the finance department.
Mema, originally from Gweru, Zimbabwe, has worked for municipalities for 13 years, including as manger of financial planning for the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, Alta., and chief financial officer at the District of Sechelt.
He heard about this job when the media announced the previous director’s retirement and thought it would be a good fit as a medium-sized municipality where his children could attend university and have job opportunities.
He started Sept. 8, making an understanding of the organization, its culture and the people he works with his top priorities.
Longterm, he plans to make this city financially resilient, which means policies and practices to withstand revenue structure shifts, as well as the ability to grow finances in line with community growth, he said.
“The city is well run actually,” he said. “It’s a very stable organization financially. It’s just for us to move it along to the next level.”
His base salary is $136,245 annually.
The City of Nanaimo also has a new director of human resources, John Van Horne, who started Aug. 10. He previously worked for the Cowichan Valley Regional District.
