North Battleford has hired its new director of finance.
David Gillan, 50, who has spent almost 20 years living and working in the Asia-Pacific region in various finance capacities, will officially take over the position May 5.
The announcement of Gillan's hire was made at Monday's council meeting.
The decision fills a position that had been vacant since September when Matthew Hartney resigned to move back to Ontario. The search was a long one, largely due to the resignation later that fall of City Manager Jim Toye.
Toye left for the city manager's job in Prince Albert and the search for a new director of finance was put on hold until a new city manager was put in place.
After the arrival of Jim Puffalt in late January the search resumed for the director of finance position. Puffalt told reporters a number of qualified individuals were in the running.
What impressed Puffalt was the private sector experience Gillan brings to the table.
"We're very thrilled to have David join the team," said Puffalt. "He's got great private sector experience, and a lot of times we need to bring that type of background to how we operate because a lot of times we have to operate with business as much as possible I think he has that type of acumen that will help us along those lines."
Puffalt noted Gillan had been a chief financial officer and had actually created a finance department for a startup business, "which is pretty huge because then you're establishing policy and procedure that you're following. That type of experience was very appealing to us."
Gillan worked in North Battleford in the 1990s, where he was general manager of the Northwest Community Futures Business Development Centre as well as spending two years in Saskatoon as business development manager for Imperial Oil.
He also held various senior management positions in private and public multinational corporations in China, Singapore and Australia.
Gillan is originally from Prince Edward Island, and attended the University of PEI where he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration. He also holds an MBA from the University of Saskatchewan and holds the certified management accountant designation.
Puffalt welcomes the new finance director but also made sure to thank the finance staff in place at City Hall for their work filling in while the position was vacant.
