When Tim Durose started his career in accounting, he had no plans of spending it in the public sector. But after more than 30 years at MPHA, Tim is thankful he decided to take a role in the public sector.

Tim first started with MPHA as a budget analyst in 1993 after earning his graduate degree. In this role he was assigned the financial reporting and analysis of the public housing program and operating subsidy. At the time, the agency was working to overcome some major hurdles: low occupancy rates and even several financial audit findings.

“It was really never my intention to work in the public sector,” said Tim Durose, Chief Financial Officer for the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority. “My role started as a job of balancing debts and credits but soon turned into a job of balancing business and social objectives, balancing accountability and empathy, balancing preservation and production, balancing public purpose and politics.”

Tim brought new energy to the finance team. After just two years, Tim was tasked with managerial responsibilities and leading major financial dealings. A year later, in 1996, Tim was promoted to assistant controller at MPHA. Shortly thereafter, with the director of the department’s health limiting his abilities to lead, Tim was thrust into the role of leading the finance team and overseeing the agency’s budget.

During this time, Tim also began supervising the Information Technology team and served on the Information Technology Advisory Committee. There Tim helped develop business cases and set technology project objectives. Included in this work was migrating MPHA to the new software the agency uses to operate and manage its housing, including accounts payable, invoice processing and workflow, construction management, and internal staff training and procedures. Implementing this data management system was instrumental in improving MPHA’s financial operations.

In 2001, Tim was promoted to Director of Finance to align his title with his responsibilities. His time in the role was marked by several large projects including negotiating and implementing the agency’s Moving to Work (MTW) agreement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), negotiating a $33 million energy performance contract that brought private financing in to replace critical heating systems (paying for itself in energy savings over 20 years), and an early conversion to new federal asset management requirements resulting in an increase of over $1 million annually in additional HUD funding.

In 2008, Tim was promoted to Chief Financial Officer (CFO), a title that was new to the agency but better reflective of the scope of Tim’s work. As CFO, Tim oversees the 20-person finance department. His team is responsible for financial accounting and reporting, budget development and variance analysis, housing finance development support, grants management and compliance, accounts receivable and payable, investments and cash management, and annual financial audits for the agency.

In this role, Tim has acted as the lead financial advisor to a growing number of complex and nation-leading public housing projects. He helped negotiate the agency’s first Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) transaction in the $27 million redevelopment of the Elliot Twins and the first-in-the-nation public housing scattered site modular multiplex project. Additionally, Tim led the team that created the internal systems necessary to accommodate an expanding number of state and local funding partners supporting MPHA’s work—totaling more than $25 million in one-time and reoccurring capital grants in recent years that add complexity to MPHA’s accounting and compliance practices.

And in November, after helping steady MPHA’s finances and navigating the agency through increasingly complex projects and dealings over the last 30 years, the Twin Cities business community took notice. Tim was named the Career Achievement honoree in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal’s CFO of the Year awards—one of the most prestigious awards a Minnesota CFO can earn.

For Tim, the award and accompanying ceremony was a chance to share pride in his work with family, friends, and contemporaries. It also commemorated Tim’s decades of work establishing a culture of excellence in MPHA’s finance team.

But in true Tim fashion, he wasted no time getting back to the task at hand. It was the middle of agency budget season, he had a new chair of the agency’s Board of Commissioners to onboard with the budget process, and the agency was in the midst of a historic 43-day government shutdown—clouding his ability to forecast MPHA’s FY26 HUD funding.

“I’m proud of what we have accomplished at the housing authority, but I know there is so much more to be done,” said Tim.

For Tim, these challenges are just another part of what has made his role at MPHA and journey in the public sector so unexpectedly enjoyable over the last 30 years.