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Town Administrator Thatcher Kezer said the job interview got away from him. Marblehead’s town administrator told the Select Board that Shaun Strobel and the town’s chief financial officer got into “treasurer speak extraordinaire” and “left the rest of us behind.” On Aug. 31, the board appointed Strobel — who has run treasury offices in Marshfield, Worcester and Pawtucket, Rhode Island — as town treasurer, with a term expiring in June 2027.
The vote, recorded as all in favor, fills a job Marblehead created by separating the treasury function from its combined treasurer/collector position. Kezer told the board July 22 that the town had decided after several years that it needed to split the position, and that it wanted an experienced treasurer focused on cash reconciliation and treasury work while the collector side remained staffed.
Strobel told the board he came out of a finance-operations background in the private sector and has spent about 20 years in the public sector, beginning as deputy director of treasury in Portland, Maine. He said he worked eight years in Rhode Island and about five in Massachusetts, and has managed budgets ranging from $100,000 to $900 million.
Records support much of that path. A 2008 Portland city file lists him as assistant director of treasury, and Pawtucket audits for fiscal 2016 and 2018 identify him as city treasurer/tax collector. Sharon’s 2021 annual report and a Worcester City Council journal from May 2023 list him in comparable posts. Marshfield’s Select Board appointed him treasurer/collector in 2023; in June 2024 its chair credited him with helping get the town’s finances certified by the state and keep them certified, and the board voted 3-0 to add $20,000 to his contract.
Marblehead has been working through cash reconciliation, financial reporting and its conversion to Tyler Munis, and officials said in July that the revenue module had run into a chart-of-accounts configuration problem. The town’s posting described the treasurer as its chief cash-management officer, responsible for internal controls, written policies and standardized procedures, and advertised pay of up to $112,263.04. Strobel’s salary was not disclosed at the meeting.
Select Board member Erin Noonan noted his Munis background. Strobel said his most recent work included Munis conversions. “I’m very excited to start,” he said. Kezer told him the town would see him this week.
