Richard Cate

Richard Cate began his part-time role as Special Advisor to the President in January 2025, while he finishes out his term (June 2025) as the Vice President for Finance and Administration at the University of Vermont (UVM). He began his role at UVM in May 2008, and he has also served as a lecturer for UVM in the Master of Public Administration program for fifteen years, teaching classes on budgeting and finance, human resource management, and government administration.

Mr. Cate has extensive experience in Pre-K-12 education and civil service. He served as Vermont’s Commissioner of Education from 2003 to 2008. Prior to that, he spent seven years with the New York State Education Department as Chief Financial Officer and then as Executive Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer, managing a budget of more than $19 billion and a staff of over 3,100 employees. Before that, he served for seven years as Executive Director of the Vermont Superintendents Association and for five years as City Manager of the City of Barre, Vermont, where his responsibilities included leading the departments of city government and managing the municipal budget. Before being appointed as city manager, he served on the Barre City Council for three years.

A native Vermonter and U.S. Army veteran, Mr. Cate graduated from the University of Vermont with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. He later earned a Master of Public Administration, a Certificate of Advanced Study in Planning and Policy Analysis (Public Finance concentration) from Rockefeller College at the University of Albany, and a Master of Accountancy from the University of Vermont.