Betty Terlaje named CUC CFO

The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. has finally named a new chief financial officer and it is no other than their very own chief of Administration Betty Terlaje.

Back in July, the CUC board of directors had named a new CFO, an off-island candidate who remained unidentified pending acceptance of the position.

However, Saipan Tribune learned that the individual rescinded their application essentially declining the CFO position.

Unbeknownst to the public, CUC’s very own Terlaje, whose background is finance but has served in numerous capacities under CUC to include acting executive director, had applied for the position.

Over the weekend, Saipan Tribune learned that the CUC board of directors chose to offer the CFO position to Terlaje who has been considered and vetted by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency.

In an interview with Terlaje, although initially torn between her previous position and CFO, she decided to accept the CFO position as she saw this as an opportunity to further help CUC flourish financially.

“I was torn between my position [as chief of Administration] and the CFO position because in both capacities, there’s a lot of work to do and there’s a lot of opportunities to drive the corporation growth and move forward. But in the capacity of the CFO, to wear that hat full time, I see that as an opportunity to drive financial growth for CUC,” she said.

“My primary focus would be the strategic and financial growth of CUC. We need to look for innovative ways to recover funds. We need to keep CUC stable and allow it to grow in capital, infrastructure, and ways where we can be more efficient to be able to pass savings on to our customers,” Terlaje added.

According to Saipan Tribune archives, the CFO position comes with an annual salary of $145,000 plus benefits.

It remains unknown whether the same package was offered to Terlaje.

The CFO position is part of the federal court’s stipulated order which was vacated by Greg Cruz and has been vacant since 2022.

Currently, the application process for the executive director for water and wastewater position is open and CUC continues to search for a new deputy executive director since current executive director Kevin Watson vacated the position last May.

Watson, who has been with CUC for about two years now, has served in his new capacity since June 1, and will serve for the next two years.

Betty G. Terlaje