Robert Lurie sees his appointment as executive vice president and chief financial officer of the New York Power Authority as a homecoming of sorts.
"For me, personally, it's a welcome return to the bond market," Lurie said Thursday morning, right after NYPA trustees confirmed his appointment at their meeting in White Plains, N.Y.
Lurie, 57, spent his first 20 working years in public finance, starting out with Lehman Brothers before serving as New Jersey director of public finance, managing more than $8 billion in infrastructure funding and overseeing the financial activities of 15 state authorities.
Lurie, who joined NYPA two years ago as senior vice president for strategic planning, will oversee the financial operations of the nation's largest state-owned electric utility and one of New York State's major power suppliers. NYPA began in 1931 and owns and operates 16 power plants - including hydroelectric facilities along the Niagara and St. Lawrence rivers - and more than 1,400 circuit-miles of transmission lines.
His duties will include forecasting and budgeting, financial planning and controls, managing investment programs and debt, and leading the enterprise risk and physical asset insurance-risk management activities.
Lurie will also oversee NYPA's strategic planning, treasury and controller functions.
"We operate some very successful power-generating assets in our hydroelectric facilities, and we operate our facilities in a conservative way," said Lurie.
Moody's Investors Service rates NYPA Aa2, while Fitch assigns its AA rating. Both carry stable outlooks. Standard & Poor's, which rates NYPA AA-minus, revised its outlook to positive from stable in January 2013, citing strong liquidity and sound debt coverage.
Lurie led a management team that created Strategic Vision 2014-2019, a five-year plan NYPA issued in March.
According to Lurie, maintaining an excellent debt-service coverage ratio is essential for keeping a high bond rating. That ratio is now around 3.5, well in excess of the 2.0 minimum standard NYPA sets for itself. "We've been substantially in the excellent range," he said.
NYPA has also been reducing its overall debt as a percentage of its capital structure. The authority, said Lurie, carries roughly $1.1 billion in debt and roughly the same amount in commercial paper and variable-rate debt.
"About one-third of our capital structure is debt; the rest is equity and reserves. It's very conservative management," he said.
The authority is part of several of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's environmental and economic development initiatives, including Energy Highway Blueprint, to modernize power infrastructure; BuildSmart NY, intended to cut energy use in state-owned facilities by 20% by 2020; and ReChargeNY, a two-year old statewide program designed to retain and create jobs through allocations of low-cost power in return for capital investment.
NYPA, said Lurie, has invested more than $700 million to modernize its transmission lines and harden the system against Hurricane Sandy-type storms.
Lurie also served as treasurer of New Jersey gas utility NUI Corp. and chief of strategic planning at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey from 2003 through 2007, where he developed a 10-year, multibillion dollar capital plan.
He holds a master's degree in business administration from the State University of New York at Albany, and a bachelor's of arts degree in economics from Union College.
