County Executive Tom Gordon has hired longtime DuPont Co. manager Tonney A. Gardner as the new Acting Chief of Administrative Services for New Castle County.
Gardner began his new job on Monday with orientation in the morning, and Chief Administrative Officer David Grimaldi introduced Gardner to general managers in the afternoon.
Andria Smith has been serving as Acting Chief of Administrative Services since Gordon returned to office. She has returned to her previous role as purchasing manager.
Per Delaware Code, Gardner will serve as Acting Chief of Administrative Services pending approval by New Castle County Council.
“Tonney [pronounced Tony] is another great addition who brings impeccable talent and skills to my administration,” County Executive Gordon said. “He comes to us from DuPont, a blue-chip company with a rich history in Delaware.”
“He holds an MBA from Drexel University and spent 22 years at DuPont, where he’s had responsibility over half a billion dollars in annual purchasing,” said CAO David Grimaldi. “We are very proud to have him join our team.”
Gardner, a William Penn High School graduate, said the opportunity to join New Castle County seemed like a perfect fit given his experience and his ideas.
“This is totally fresh,” Gardner said. ”I’ll be able to have more of an impact by working for the County. I know County Executive Tom Gordon’s track record and understand the high level of expectation.”
Gardner was most recently a sourcing and logistics consultant with DuPont Corporate Sourcing in Wilmington. Prior to that, he was strategic environmental buyer at the same site and he also served as site manager at the DuPont Edgemoor Plant. Gardner joined DuPont Performance Coating in 1993 as a research associate and worked his way up.
Gardner earned a Master’s in Business Administration (Global Management) from Drexel University in Philadelphia and a Bachelor of Science in Marketing with a Minor in Mathematics from Saint Peter’s College in Jersey City, N.J.
Gardner and his wife of 14 years have two children, a girl and a boy. The 49-year-old graduated from William Penn in New Castle, Del. in 1983.