New Spencer finance director to bring private sector expertise to critical role

Perry Borchard is Spencer’s new finance director. He was officially hired on April 7 following a long search. (Photo by Nick Lowrey)

Spencer’s new finance director has never worked in government before, but he’s done just about everything else in the world of financial management.

Perry Borchard, who grew up in Hartley, officially stepped into the finance director role on April 7 after the City Council voted unanimously to hire him to fill the long vacant post. Borchard brings more than three decades of private sector experience to the position. He’s served as a financial officer in a rapidly growing dairy empire, started an accounting and financial advising firm with several clients in the health care industry, and worked closely with many nonprofits. Borchard said that while he hasn’t worked in government until now, he’s confident his skill sets will translate well.

“If you can do a Medicare cost report, you can do a tax return and a financial report necessary to the state,” he said. “I’m confident I’ll grasp it quickly.”

Borchard’s journey to Spencer’s city government was rooted in his deep connection to the area and a desire to make a meaningful impact in a community. His last private sector job, overseeing family finances for the former owners of Wells Enterprises in Le Mars, had ended with the sale of the company, and Borchard said he was looking to round out his career in a role where he could use his skills and experience to leave a positive impact on the world. Borchard said he was reading the newspaper at his family cabin in Spirit Lake when he saw an ad announcing that Spencer needed a finance director.

“I’d often thought, what would that last impact for my career look like? I was really more looking at going into health care, but then I saw this position, and I was like, ‘Oh, wow,’” Borchard said.

Spencer has been a special place in Borchard’s family for nearly a century. His grandfather moved to the city during the Great Depression. Borchard said his parents would travel to Spencer at least once a week while he was growing up, and he’s got many friends who live in the city. He said he jumped at the chance to help Spencer recover from the devastating June 22, 2024, flood and grow stronger into the future.

“It’s not just the ability to come help and rebuild and repair,” Borchard said. “It’s also, more importantly, what we’re going to relaunch to be. And that was pretty attractive.”

Borchard said his immediate priority will be getting up to speed with the city’s finances and getting to know his staff. In the near term, Borchard said, he’ll spend much of his time on the financial side of Spencer’s flood recovery efforts. Tracking and properly reporting all of the city’s disaster recovery spending will be essential to ensuring Spencer gets as much money back from the Federal Emergency Management Agency as possible.

Borchard said his expertise and experience will be especially valuable once he starts helping Spencer grow its economy. He said he sees tremendous potential for development in the entire Lakes region, but most especially in Spencer.

“A year from now, two years from now, that’s when we’ll start working together with leadership and the council, the mayor and (City Manager Kevin Robinson), and start to discuss some of those other things where I can bring value,” Borchard said.

Since graduating from Morningside College in 1987, Borchard has helped grow two well-known companies, Wells Blue Bunny and the Foreign Candy Company. Borchard said Blue Bunny grew from 400 employees to over 2,000 while he worked as a financial controller for the company, and that experience has helped broaden his thinking about economic development. One of the big lessons he learned was that people are willing to commute for work, shopping, and entertainment.

“People are willing, for the right job, for the right school, for the right neighborhood, they’ll commute 30-45 minutes,” Borchard said. “We’ve got to think wider than the boundaries of the City of Spencer because people are willing to drive. I think that working that corridor is really where my value add is. And to grow it just like we grew businesses or recovered businesses.”

Ultimately, Borchard said he sees his new role as laying a foundation for a strong future in Spencer. He said he’s passionate about creating an environment that attracts young professionals and families to the area.

“What we’re doing today is for 20 years from now … I want to dream with others to make this a very attractive place to come,” Borchard said. “I want to create a place where my son, coming out of medical school, would want to come.”