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About

Comptroller William McNamara's headshot

A native of Norwood and graduate of Norwood High School, Bill McNamara earned his Bachelor of Arts in Economics and English at Williams College and a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in finance at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business.

His post-M.B.A. career began at Norton Company in Worcester, where he was the senior business analyst in the office of the CFO and Controller. Transitioning to the investment industry in 1992, McNamara spent sixteen years at Fidelity Investments. He rose through the finance function to become CFO of a major division with a budget of over $500 million.

Moving to investment management and distribution, he applied new analytic and data techniques to product management and strategic marketing for a multibillion-dollar mutual product line. After leaving Fidelity, he spent time as an investment industry consultant and at an investment firm before joining the Department of Revenue (DOR) as Deputy Commissioner in 2016.

McNamara had a broad range of responsibilities at DOR including managing legislative and external affairs, communications, and policy. Working with DOR’s team of economists, he implemented new approaches to taxpayer data in order to better understand the impact of economic conditions and federal law changes on taxpayers. As Assistant Secretary in the Executive Office for Administration and Finance, McNamara oversaw budgeting and spending across several key agencies and in the information technology function.