ALAMEDA, Calif. — Brian Thomas, chief financial officer of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, will join PFM Group in January as a managing director in its Los Angeles office, the firm announced Wednesday.
Thomas has been the district's CFO since 2000. He was its assistant chief of planning and resources from 1994 through 1999.
The consortium of 26 cities and water districts delivers water to 19 million residents in five counties in southern California. It has a capital-intensive mission and about $4.7 billion of outstanding revenue bond debt.
PFM managing director Peter Miller, the head of the firm's West Coast practice, said municipal water financing represents a large and growing share of PFM's business.
"The policy and finance issues confronting water purveyors throughout the West are both sophisticated and varied," Miller said in a statement. "For these reasons, we are very fortunate to have someone with Brian's considerable experience and expertise."
At MWD, Thomas was in charge of all financial programs, including financial and capital planning, investments, debt management, budgeting, accounting, and reporting.
"Brian made significant contributions to a number of Met Water's major policy and program efforts, ranging from water transfers to water rates, energy risk management, and operating and capital planning and budgeting," Dan Hartman, co-head of PFM's national public power group, said in a statement.
Thomas, a Pasadena resident, has worked in the power and water business in Southern California for more than 25 years, including experience at the city of Anaheim and Riverside Public Utilities.
PFM was the nation's top-ranked financial adviser in 2009, measured by both volume and number of issues, according to Thomson Reuters.
