Diocese names new chief financial officer

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Candice Greenwald

SALT LAKE CITY — A St. John the Baptist parishioner who for the past eight years has volunteered as a member of the parish’s finance council has been appointed the new chief financial officer of the Diocese of Salt Lake City.

Candice Greenwald is succeeding Joan Loffredo, who is retiring after 22 years in the position.

Born in Illinois, Greenwald has always had a love for numbers, she said. When a college professor advised her to major in education or bookkeeping, Greenwald decided instead to pursue an accounting degree.

“I said to myself, ‘I am not going to follow the traditional role for a female when it’s related to careers that involve numbers,’ so I decided to go for accounting,” said Greenwald, who passed her classes with honors.

Then life took her to Wisconsin, where she married Patrick Greenwald. In 2006, the couple moved to Utah, and she worked for a year as the business manager at St. John the Baptist Parish. While there, she had her third child. To keep up with her family’s growth, she moved to a better-paying job.

“Looking back [at the St. John’s position], it was a huge blessing,” she said. “I got to develop so many good friends, and it kind of guided me to become a better Catholic, involved more in the service of the Church.”

In 2007, she took the position of director of budget and financial reporting at Westminster College. In 2012, she earned a master’s degree in accounting and last year, she saw in this newspaper that the diocese was looking for a CFO.

It was a sign from God, she said. “Going through the requirements, I said ‘Oh, my gosh, I qualify for this: I can do that, I do that. …’ So I applied, and I think it was just meant to be.”

Besides Greenwald’s professional credentials as a certified public accountant with 35 years of fund accounting experience, budgeting, forecasting and long-range planning, “she has nearly 13 years in not-for-profit and seven years in governmental accounting,” said Msgr. Colin F. Bircumshaw, diocesan Vicar General. “She also has 14 years of process as well as personnel management experience and 20 years of analytic and research experience.”

Aside from her accounting responsibilities, Greenwald also teaches in Westminster College’s MBA program.

Greenwald began transitioning into the CFO position at the diocesan Pastoral Center at the beginning of the year.

“Here at the Pastoral Center everyone is very kind. ... I feel at home already,” she said. “It’s a great place to be at. The Church is so important, and to be to be able to serve in it is a great blessing. … The staff here is wonderful. I really think it’s going to be a great journey. We are all one team under one Church.”

Another benefit to working at the Pastoral Center is that “I love that now I can go to daily Mass,” she said.