Skip to content

New chief in charge of city’s purse strings

There’s a new director of finance at the City of Burnaby. Noreen Kassam takes over for Denise Jorgenson, who recently retired from the city after three decades. Kassam was an internal hire.
Noreen Kassam
Noreen Kassam started her new role as the city's director of finance on Tuesday, April 4.

There’s a new director of finance at the City of Burnaby.

Noreen Kassam takes over for Denise Jorgenson, who recently retired from the city after three decades.  

Kassam was an internal hire. She previously held the position of assistant director of financial planning and capital equity for more than three years.

Before that, she was at the City of Surrey for eight years as its manager of budgets and reporting. Other gigs she’s had are with Metro Vancouver as a financial analyst and in the private sector with Aza Pacific Insurance Company.

Kassam, who was born in Copenhagen, Denmark and immigrated to Canada when she was one, also worked in the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, where she audited crown corporations.

“I definitely have big shoes to fill,” she said of replacing Jorgenson. “But I’m up for the challenge.”

The finance director oversees a half-billion-dollar annual operation that has a near billion-dollar reserve.

At the end of 2015, the City of Burnaby’s investment portfolio topped the $900-million mark and returned a healthy profit of $41.5 million, or 3.91 per cent. As for 2016, the city is projecting an annual yield of 3.35 per cent and $39.6 million in investment income, according to a staff report.

Kassam called Burnaby “an amazing city to work for,” one that is “debt free, financially stable and fiscally prudent.”

“(It’s) just exciting to be in this role and work with senior management to one common vision.”

The thing she’s looking forward to most in her new role are the challenges to come, she said.

“Things are always changing. There’s a lot of the downloading happening from the province,” Kassam told the NOW. “It’s just working with some of the issues that arise, ensuring that the departments have all the information they need in order to continue serving the citizens of Burnaby, and keeping the city as wonderful as it is.”

Kassam called her management style “very open, approachable and collaborative.”

When she’s not working, Kassam can be found on the soccer field, playing with the Women’s Metro Soccer League. She also enjoys to ski, golf and kayak.

The mother of two lives in Surrey and planned to move to Burnaby when she got her first job with the city, but a hot housing market got in the way. She said her family could one day still make the move.