Invest Newark Names Carmen Gandulla as CFO

Invest Newark has tapped Carmen Gandulla as its next chief financial officer, bringing more than 15 years of government and financial services experience to Newark’s primary economic development agency.

Gandulla’s most recent senior role was with the City of Jersey City, where she managed a $1.35 billion financial portfolio and ran a $650 million annual operating budget. That’s not small-shop experience. Those numbers put her on equal footing with executives overseeing regional banks and mid-size hospital systems, which is exactly the kind of background Invest Newark needs as its lending programs and land development work grow in scale and complexity.

Invest Newark operates as Newark’s main economic development engine, working across lending, land banking, broadband build-out and housing access. Its Newark Fiber initiative, aimed at closing the digital divide in one of New Jersey’s largest cities, is among the agency’s most visible programs — though you won’t find em dashes here, just a straightforward list of priorities that cost real money and require real oversight.

Gandulla’s own words were specific. “I have spent my career building the financial infrastructure that makes missions like this possible,” Gandulla said, per ROI-NJ. “From the growing lending program and Land Bank creating homeownership pathways, to Newark Fiber closing the digital divide, my job as CFO is to build the financial foundation that takes all of that to the next level,” she said.

That’s not boilerplate. She named programs. She named outcomes. It’s the difference between a hire who read the job description and one who already understands what she’s walking into.

Her professional background covers financial strategy, capital and grant planning, treasury operations and audit readiness. For a public-facing agency that depends on a mix of city support, private investment, and state and federal dollars from sources like the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, that kind of discipline isn’t optional. Getting audits clean and grant pipelines organized isn’t glamorous. It’s what keeps the whole operation funded and functional.

Beyond the financial side, Gandulla’s community record in New Jersey is substantial. She holds leadership and advisory roles with Latinas United for Political Empowerment, the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen, and New Jersey City University’s President’s Community Advisory Council. She’s also principal of The C Company and serves as a New Jersey State Puerto Rican Commissioner. That’s a combination you don’t see on every CFO resume. For an agency whose core work is economic equity in an urban environment, it matters who’s counting the money and who they’ve historically answered to.

Invest Newark’s portfolio doesn’t fit the traditional economic development mold. A Land Bank carving out homeownership pathways for residents who’d otherwise get squeezed out. A fiber network built specifically for low-income neighborhoods that can’t get a decent broadband connection from a commercial provider. A lending program that extends capital to borrowers the conventional market won’t touch. Each of these lines of work carries its own funding structure, its own compliance requirements, its own reporting obligations.

In 2026, Invest Newark is pushing into territory that requires institutional-grade financial management paired with genuine knowledge of community development. Gandulla’s appointment, first reported April 21 by ROI-NJ, signals the agency isn’t looking for a number-cruncher who’ll sit in the back office. They want someone who can read a balance sheet and explain it to a neighborhood.

The agency hasn’t announced a start date for Gandulla publicly.