Chief Finance Officer

Michael J. Masch

Michael J. Masch is the Chief Financial Officer of the School District of Philadelphia, the eighth largest school district in the United States, with an annual budget of over $3 billion, nearly 24,000 employees, and a student enrollment of nearly 200,000 students (80% in District-operated schools and 20% in charter schools).

Mr. Masch began his service with the School District in July 2008.

He is responsible for the preparation and implementation of the District's annual operating, categorical and capital budgets, and oversees the SDP units responsible for accounting, financial reporting, accounts payable, payroll, cash management, treasury operations, child accounting, Medicaid reimbursement, workers' compensation, risk management, and business systems administration.

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania – Previous Service

Mr. Masch was appointed as the Secretary of the Budget for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by Governor Edward G. Rendell in January 2003 and served in that position until June 2008.

Mr. Masch also served as Pennsylvania's Secretary of Administration from October 2004 through August 2005, responsible for the Commonwealth's offices of human resources and information technology.

As the leader of the Office of the Budget, Secretary Masch was the chief financial officer of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, responsible for the preparation of the Governor's budget and its implementation after legislative enactment. He was also responsible for maintaining the Commonwealth's accounting, payroll, debt issuance and financial reporting systems and programs. Secretary Masch and his staff carried out special analyses on all aspects of fiscal policy for the Governor and provided other senior officials of the Commonwealth with the information they needed to evaluate the impact of current and possible new policies and programs on the finances of the Commonwealth.

As Secretary of the Budget, Mr. Masch also served on a number of state boards and commissions, including the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority, the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority, the Pennsylvania Employees Benefit Trust Fund, the Commonwealth Financing Authority, the Tobacco Settlement Investment Board, the Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority for the City of Philadelphia, and the Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority for the City of Pittsburgh.

University of Pennsylvania – Previous and Current Service

Prior to his appointment as Secretary of the Budget, Mr. Masch served as Vice President for Budget and Management at the University of Pennsylvania, one of America's outstanding research universities, a member of the Ivy league with a student body of over 22,000, 4 undergraduate schools, 12 graduate schools, a faculty of 4,350, an integrated academic health system, and an annual operating budget of over $4.5 billion.

At Penn, Mr. Masch was responsible for the preparation of the University's annual operating budget, development of the University's five-year financial plan, and the integration of the University's operating budget with its capital program.

Mr. Masch moved Penn for the first time to a five year budget planning cycle (in place of the twelve month annual budget planning that had previously been the University's practice) and engineered major changes in University business practices and processes that improved the efficiency and effectiveness of resource allocation decisions, enabling the University to advance dramatically in academic standing while simultaneously undertaking a multi-faceted campaign to revitalize housing, schools, culture, and safety in the University City section of Philadelphia.

City of Philadelphia – Previous Service

Prior to joining the Office of the President at the University of Pennsylvania in 1996, Mr. Masch served under then-Mayor Edward G. Rendell as Budget Director for the City of Philadelphia from 1992 to 1996.

In 1992, when the City of Philadelphia was on the verge of bankruptcy following ten years of persistent city budget deficits, Mr. Masch played an important role on the team that succeeded in balancing the Philadelphia budget during Mayor Rendell's first year in office. He then played a key role in developing and implementing Mayor Rendell's subsequent groundbreaking program of annual tax cuts, growing budget surpluses and incremental service improvements.

Prior to his service as Philadelphia budget director, Mr. Masch served as director of economic analysis for the Philadelphia City Council from 1983 to 1991, during the administration of Mayor Wilson Goode.

School District of Philadelphia – Previous Service

As a private citizen, Mr. Masch was appointed to a voluntary unpaid position as a member of the Philadelphia Board of Education by Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street in March 2000. Mr. Masch was the chair of the Board's finance committee and served on the board until December 2001, when the Philadelphia school board was replaced with the Philadelphia School Reform Commission, a new state-local governing body established by the Governor of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Legislature.

In January 2002, Mr. Masch was appointed by Governor Mark Schweiker and Mayor John F. Street to serve as one of the five inaugural members of the Philadelphia School Reform Commission. As a member of the School Reform Commission in 2002, Mr. Masch participated in the development and implementation of the SRC's successful plan to rescue the local Philadelphia school system from insolvency. He also participated in the SRC's first-year initiatives to dramatically improve safety, efficiency, accountability, school choice and educational effectiveness in the Philadelphia public school system.

Other Information

Mr. Masch is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA), an independent non-partisan corporation chartered by Congress in 1967 that provides advice and assistance to Federal agencies, the Congress, state and local governments, universities and foundations in areas such as budgeting and finance, performance measurement, human resources management and information technology. Among the primary policy concerns of NAPA at present are health care reform, the nation's fiscal future, social equity and homeland security.

Mr. Masch serves on the board of the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority as an appointee of the Governor of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Masch is a native Philadelphian. He majored in Urban Studies as an undergraduate at Temple University and received his Master of Government Administration degree from the University of Pennsylvania.