Michael Williams, a finance professional who has held senior management positions with an array of local nonprofit organizations, has been appointed chief financial officer (CF)) for the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara.
Williams earned a bachelor’s degree in business economics at UCSB and an MBA at UC Irvine.
After beginning his career as a senior auditor at KPMG Peat Marwick, he held finance and marketing positions at Allergan, Verizon Wireless, and Superconductor Technologies.
He served as chief administrative officer at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History (February 2005 to September 2008), before founding the tech startup Digifit, which helped pioneer the use of iPhones to track heart rate and other personal fitness data.
In recent years, Williams has served as a part-time CFO for a number of area nonprofits including CALM, Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, Hearts Therapeutic Equestrian Center, Hillside House, Santa Barbara Symphony, Girls Inc. of Carpinteria, Sansum Diabetes Research Institute, and the Community Environmental Council.
“Having worked with Michael at Girls Inc. of Carpinteria, I can personally attest to his unique abilities and his perceptive analysis of financial processes,” said Victoria Juarez, Scholarship Foundation president/CEO. “I am very pleased to have him as a member of my senior staff once again.”
The Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara is the nation’s largest community-based provider of college scholarships, having cumulatively awarded in excess of $108 million to more than 50,000 county students since its founding in 1962.
A nonprofit organization, the Scholarship Foundation also provides free financial aid advising services. For more, visit www.sbscholarship.org.
— Tim Dougherty for Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara.