BURLINGTON — Chief Administrative Officer Beth Anderson is leaving her post at the end of the month to become the president and CEO of Vermont Information Technology Leaders.
VITL is a nonprofit organization that operates the Vermont Health Information Exchange, a statewide data network that gives health care providers electronic access to patient data.
Anderson became the city’s first chief innovation officer in 2015 before becoming the city’s first female CAO in 2018. Her signature achievement as CIO was launching the BTVStat initiative, prioritizing the use of data across city departments.
Dr. Bruce Bullock, the chair of VITL’s board, said Anderson’s background in improving the use of data in both the public and private sectors makes her well-equipped for the job.
“She has a great combination of, as I read it, determination and a depth of understanding around information technology and the ability to understand a complicated area of the interface between policy, health care and Vermont’s values,” Bullock said.
Anderson’s appointment comes after VITL’s former CEO, Mike Smith, left the organization to become the secretary of the Agency of Human Services last month.
Smith had been credited with steering the organization away from financial and administrative trouble, downsizing its operations and boosting the number of patient records in its system.
Announcing Anderson’s appointment, VITL said she will build on Smith’s work and “significantly improve the value of VITL’s data repository to providers and patients.”
Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger said at the time of her promotion to CAO that Anderson had helped improve the city’s technology systems, “everything from updating terribly outdated firewalls to creating a help desk for city staffers, and improvements to the way in which city uses basic technology.”
The chief administrative officer leads the city’s budgeting process and oversees the city’s clerk/treasurer office. Anderson led the city through two budgeting processes, Weinberger said.
In recent years, the city has drastically improved its credit rating, which cratered in 2010 after then-Mayor Bob Kiss diverted $17 million in taxpayer funds to keep Burlington Telecom afloat.
Moody’s Investors Services, a credit rating agency, upgraded the city to its 2009 credit rating this summer. Weinberger has made restoring the city’s financial health a key focus of his tenure as mayor.
Weinberger said in a press release announcing Anderson’s departure that she had played a crucial role in those efforts by rebuilding the city’s unassigned fund balance, ensuring clean audits and drafting new debt and pension policies.
“She has been a huge part of some of the City’s most significant recent successes, restoring our financial standing and broadly improving municipal operations through data analysis and the hard work of continuous improvement,” he said. “We will miss Beth in City Hall and wish her the best in her exciting new role.”
Before coming to Vermont, Anderson worked in finance, serving as vice president of eCommerce at Goldman Sachs Asset Management and job manager at Oliver Wyman, according to VITL.
