Meet Our Team

Our team takes great pride in providing leadership and turnkey solutions for our clients. Our dedication, diverse experience and resources deliver quality results when you need it the most.

For Cities and Counties Call Tim

Tim Pickering

President and CEO

Tim Pickering, ICMA-CM, CEcD, serves as President & CEO for Interim Public Management, LLC, which provides interim department directors and city managers to cities and counties in the Southwest and which he founded in 2010.  Prior to this endeavor, he served communities for two decades in the capacity of City Manager or CEO, including the Town of Fountain Hills and Salt River Devco, both in Arizona; Collinsville and Freeburg in Illinois; and Olivette, Missouri – all in major metropolitan areas.

Mr. Pickering received his BS and Masters of Public Administration from Southern Illinois University. He is a graduate of Harvard Kennedy School’s Senior Executives in State and Local Government program, and of the University of Oklahoma’s Economic Development Institute. He has been one of the country’s approximately 1,100 Certified Economic Developers (CEcD) for 20+ years. Additionally, he has lectured on administrative topics for graduate programs at Arizona State University.

Tim served on the Board of Directors of the Arizona City/County Management Association and as President of the St. Louis Area City/County Management Association, and he received the Dr. Leo Cohen Urban Management Award. He is a 30+ year member of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) and is a Credentialed ICMA Manager (ICMA-CM). He has served on the Valley Leadership Board of Directors in Phoenix as well.

Mr. Pickering began Interim Public Management, LLC (IPM), in 2010 to assist communities when a transition of senior leadership occurs. IPM quickly became Arizona’s largest local government executive staffing service, featuring 250+ associates and having served such clients as Avondale, Chandler, Chino Valley, Clarkdale, Coconino County, Flagstaff, Kingman, Lake Havasu City, Marana, Maricopa, Paradise Valley, Phoenix, Queen Creek, Safford, Show Low, Tucson, and Yuma, to name a few. Beyond Arizona, IPM has served communities in Colorado, Missouri, Nevada, and Utah.  In his role as President & CEO of IPM, Mr. Pickering specializes in providing the right interim personnel for each community’s unique management transition situation.

John Kross

Chief Operating Officer

John Kross is the former Town Manager for Queen Creek, Arizona (one of the Phoenix region suburbs) a position he has held since March 2007 until his retirement in January 2023. In November 2023, John was appointed as the Pinal Regional Transportation Authority’s Executive Director, remaining in the role on a limited basis until late 2024. In Queen Creek, John joined the organization in 1996 as the Community Development Director and also served as Assistant Town Manager. In 2007, the Queen Creek Town Council voted unanimously to appoint John as Town Manager, after serving for 9 months as Interim Town Manager.

Kross began his career in both Wisconsin and Arizona in 1989. In Wisconsin, he worked for a private downtown redevelopment firm, and in Arizona, he has worked for the cities of Gilbert, Phoenix, Wickenburg, and Queen Creek. Mr. Kross has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Ripon College in Wisconsin, a Master’s of Public Administration from Arizona State University, and is a 2014 graduate of Harvard University’s Senior Executive in Local and State Government program. In 2018, John Kross was the recipient of the John J. Debolske Professional Excellence Award – the highest honor granted to an Arizona City or County Manager.

Mr. Kross served on a number of national, local, and regional committees, including the ICMA Conference Committee Co-Chair for the Phoenix national conference. He was Chair of the TOPAZ Regional Wireless Cooperative its original founding Chair for 15-years; and the former Chair of the Maricopa Association of Governments Management Committee. He was recognized in 2022 as 4th in the Nation as “Top Local Government Influencers” by Emerging Local Government Leaders (ELGL) and in 2024 with the “Distinguished Planning Pioneer” by the American Planning Association’s Arizona Chapter.

Operating for the betterment of our communities.

Our Associates

Our associates have worked in great communities from across the country.