Hopkinton Town Manager Khumalo a finalist for Cambridge position

HOPKINTON — Norman Khumalo, Hopkinton's town manager for the past 13 years, is a finalist to become Cambridge's next city manager.

Khumalo, 57, is among four finalists for the position, which becomes open in early July when current City Manager Louis DePasquale retires. Tonight, all four finalists will be interviewed by the Cambridge City Council, with a selection to be made later this month.

Related: Hopkinton's highest paid town employees

Khumalo did not return a Daily News call or email requesting comment on Tuesday. He is Hopkinton's highest-paid employee, earning $221,806.96 in 2021, according to town records. He was hired in 2009 after serving as assistant town manager in Westford from 2002 to 2009.

Before that, he was previously a town planner in Wellesley and Walpole.

A native of Zimbabwe, Khumalo spent time working in humanitarian organizations in the 1990s. Shortly after the Rwandan genocide in the mid-1990s, Khumalo worked with the nonprofit organization Oxfam America to aid refugees who had been impacted by the ethnic slaughter.

Related: Q&A with Norman Khumalo upon his start in Hopkinton 

Khumalo was also a finalist for the city manager position in Watertown. The Watertown City Council last week selected Somerville Planning Director George Proakis for the job.

The other three finalists for the Cambridge position are Iram Farooq, assistant city manager for community development in Cambridge; Cheryl Watson Fisher, city solicitor in Chelsea; and Yi-An Huang, executive director of Boston Medical Center's Hospital Clinical Operations Department.

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Hopkinton Town Manager Khumalo a finalist for Cambridge position