Mountain Sky Conference hires new Chief Financial Officer

By Rev. Dr. C. Dennis Shaw
Member, Council on Finance and Administration
Mountain Sky Conference

The Conference Council on Finance and Administration is pleased to announce that Angela Thomas, currently Assistant Treasurer and Controller of the Missouri Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church, will be the first Chief Financial Officer for the Mountain Sky Conference. The retirement of our current Treasurer Noreen Keleshian was previously announced in July. This hiring of Angela was in close coordination, collaboration, and approval of Bishop Karen Oliveto, the Board of Trustees, and the Board of Pension and Health Benefits.

Angela has superb credentials to serve in this capacity: degree and experience in accounting; Master of Business Administration; Certified Public Accountant; and a member of the National Association of Church Business Administrators.

Angela also brings considerable experience to augment those credentials. Before moving to Missouri in 2016, Angela was the key financial leader in several Mississippi and Colorado churches, including Trinity UMC in Denver, Colorado. Rev. Nate Berneking, the Missouri Conference Treasurer, said, “I am so happy for Angela and the Mountain Sky Conference. Her promotion is our loss, but Mountain Sky’s gain. She’s done an excellent job for Missouri.”

Bishop Oliveto was particularly impressed with Angela’s focus on supporting the mission and vision.

“We are looking for leaders to join the leadership team who can vision a new culture, maybe even what others see as impossible," she said. "Scripture, for example, Ephesians 4:13, frames what is truly possible for us. We aspire for prayerful, scriptural, adaptive leaders who will do the hard work to help us get to what scripture says is possible – together. Angela impressed me, in humility, as having that mission-focused, vision-shaping approach.”

It is specifically the shift on focus from operations to vision which led the Council on Finance and Administration to rebrand the position as Chief Financial Officer.

When asked what three words would your peers use to describe her, Angela replied: “Trustworthy, knowledgeable, and flexible, and I am excited to be able to put those words, and other words, on display in support of the mission of the Mountain Sky Conference. I am prayerful that the confidence shown in me by so many will bear spiritual fruit.”

Angela will join the Conference Office on December 2 and work with Noreen to understand the unique elements of the region and begin developing plans. She can be reached at athomas@mtnskyumc.org beginning December 2. Please pray for Angela, Noreen, and both Mountain Sky and Missouri annual conferences in this time of transition.

Questions on this announcement may be emailed to Dennis Shaw at revdennisshaw@gmail.com.