Craig Boyer works for the County of Alameda as the Assistant Controller for the Auditor-Controller Agency. He has been a CSMFO member since 2011 and currently serves on three CSMFO Committees, as Chair of the Student Engagement Committee and as Senior Advisor to both the Professional Standards and Recognition Committees. Yes, he is supernatural yet leads a balanced life. Craig’s passion for sharing, improving, and appreciating others is manifested in his sincere answers.

1. What is your favorite book, movie, or TV show and why?

My favorite TV show is Seinfeld because it always highlighted humor in the mundane events of life – the show about “nothing”.  The show also did a great job handling topics such as the one in the “contest” episode where you could not be as straightforward about presenting the issue on television back then as you could today.  This limitation in some ways forced the show writers to demonstrate greater creativity in their work.

2. How has a previous or current mentor impacted your career?

I have worked in public accounting as well as local government during my career.  In my last public accounting job, I worked with a partner who taught me the importance of how my actions as a manager affected the quality of work life for staff I supervised.  One lesson in particular stood out to me.

In public accounting, staff are expected to work long hours.  In order to limit the feeling that you are always available to work, this partner intentionally limited when he would use remote communications such as phone and email to communicate with staff.  If he had a message for a staff person, he would not send it out later than 6pm, as he did not want to create an expectation that the staff person was required to address any items in the message that evening.  Instead, he would delay sending the communication until the following morning.  I have found it useful in my own career to exercise discretion in my communications with staff outside normal business hours.

3. What do you enjoy most about your job?

I enjoy working with other people in local government who share similar values of integrity and the commitment to adhere to generally accepted accounting principles.  It is great to collaborate with, train and learn from others to achieve common goals.

4. Knowing what you know now, if you were new to government finance what would you do differently when you started your career?

I would have focused more on the value of good working relationships with people who I work with regularly. One nice thing about working in public accounting is that you have an opportunity to work with a lot of people in a variety of organizations and this is valuable information to have at hand when considering the organization that is the best fit for you and your career.

5. What is your current position and what do your children or friends think you do at work?

My current position is Assistant Controller of the General Accounting Unit at the Auditor-Controller Agency.  The Unit’s primary responsibility is to maintain the County’s general ledger and prepare significant financial reports such as the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report.  My kids have always understood that I work with numbers a lot and now that they are both teenagers, they are starting to have a better understanding of the role of accounting in local government.

6. How do you keep up to date with upcoming regulations?

CSMFO, of course!  I also rely on the network of local government people who I know, as well as other professional organizations such as GFOA and the AICPA.

7. How do you motivate staff and yourself?

I motivate staff by filtering out a lot of the distractions that often interject themselves into the accounting work, so that staff can focus on understanding and applying accounting standards to their work. Most staff who I work with enjoy performing accounting work, so my goal is to maximize the amount of time they have to focus on job tasks that they enjoy.  I find myself more motivated when there is variety in my job, so I appreciate that CSMFO provides training and networking opportunities that create more variety in my workdays.

8. What has been the most challenging time in your finance career and how did you overcome it?

The most challenging time in my career was when my kids were young, and I was attempting to balance my work career with my family responsibilities.  In this age where both parents often work full-time, it is difficult to avoid conflicting schedules.  I overcame this challenge by committing to a consistent schedule where I made time to be home for dinner with my family on most workdays.

9. What is something about you that no one would ever guess or expect?

I have been an avid stamp collector since I was a child and continue to collect stamps to this day.  The shelter-in-place has given me an opportunity to upgrade the binders, pages, and mounts that I use to maintain my collection.

10.  What advice do you have for a CSMFO member on getting more involved with the organization? 

Start searching for ways to get involved today!  Chapters and committees are always looking for volunteers who want to participate.  If you are willing to invest time in these groups, you can often pursue projects that are personally interesting to you.  At the same time, these projects benefit the organization and help to build your network.  For those members who are interested in student engagement, the committee is currently focused on student outreach activities, enhancement of the student webpage and in particular the internship program, and the rollout of a student listserv with curated content from regular contributors.  If any of these programs interest you, please contact me to get involved.