Hannes Zacharias

Hannes Zacharias has some 40 years of experience in administering government at the Federal, State, County and local level.  Hannes’ career in public service began in 1979 as Asst. to the Director of Travel and Tourism for the State of Kansas.  In 1980 Hannes became a Federal Grants manager for the U.S. Dept. of Commerce and in 1981 he was serving as Associate Director and Chief Grants Officer for the Kansas Arts Commission.  Hannes began his work in local government in 1984 becoming Assistant to the City Manager for the City of Lawrence. He was named the City Administrator for Boonville, Missouri, in 1988, and moved to Hays, Kansas, in 1992 to serve as City Manager for nine years.  He joined the Johnson County (Ks) management team in 2001 as Assistant County Manager and was promoted to Deputy County Manager in January 2005. He later became County Manager and served in that position for 9 years. In that capacity, Mr. Zacharias served as the chief administrative officer, overseeing all operations of Johnson County Government serving over 585,000 residents. He coordinated the delivery of services provided by more than 3,800 employees, and was responsible for preparing and submitting the county’s annual operating and capital budgets totaling more than $1.06 billion.  As County Manager Mr. Zacharias appointed all 19 county department directors and was accountable for organizational performance, achievement and service delivery in the daily operations of Johnson County. He was responsible for implementing policies and directives established by the Johnson County Board of Commissioners.  Upon his departure from Johnson County in 2018, Hannes embarked on his second solo kayak trip down the Arkansas River following a drop of water 2060 miles from the Continental divide in Colorado, on to the Mississippi, and concluding at Venice LA at the Gulf of Mexico.  Hannes started his position as a Professor of Practice in 2019 teaching graduate and undergraduate course and mentoring students desiring to be public administrators.