Nickie Whitaker
Senior Managing Consultant

Email:

whitakern@pfm.com

Business Specialty:

Financial Management
Strategic Consulting

Office:

Des Moines
2600 Grand Avenue
Suite 214
Des Moines, IA 50312
Phone: 515-243-2600
Fax: 515-243-6994

Nickie Whitaker is a Senior Managing Consultant with PFM's Strategic Consulting practice. Ms. Whitaker is currently managing budgeting and operational reform initiatives for the City of New Orleans, including assessments of alternative revenue opportunities. She worked closely with the School District of Philadelphia on the development and implementation of fiscal control policies, procedures, and cost savings initiatives during a fiscal crisis, and provides leadership for the City of Pittsburgh ERP assessment. Ms. Whitaker has also been a key staff member on projects assessing staffing and operations for the states of Nebraska and Illinois.

Prior to joining PFM, Ms. Whitaker led the design and implementation of the State of Iowa's web-based budget and performance management system. She developed and implemented a structured approach of change management, both at the individual and organizational level, to manage a high degree of policy and procedure change for the transition to a new budget environment. Iowa's new budget system fundamentally defined and operationalized how the State does business, providing successively new levels of service, including reporting results for dollars allocated, generating real-time information to answer the questions of state lawmakers and other decision-makers, and reducing budget submission paperwork by over 80%.

Ms. Whitaker is a recipient of the State of Iowa's Leader of the Year award, and has been a featured speaker for the National Association of State Budget Officers. She has advised on employee ownership and international accounting issues, as well as business planning and financial analysis, for credit unions in the countries of Georgia and Azerbaijan. She has also served as an adjunct faculty member at Simpson College, Iowa and University of Wisconsin International - Ukraine, teaching courses in economics and accounting, and receiving the Alpha Sigma Lambda award for Excellence in Teaching. Ms. Whitaker earned her Masters in Business Administration from the University of Pittsburgh and a Bachelor of Arts degree in accounting and economics from Simpson College, Iowa.