Shawn Dralle, a 35-year public finance banker, has transitioned from banking to the issuer side, accepting the role of Los Angeles County assistant treasurer-tax collector.
Dralle, who was most recently a managing director for Cabrera Capital, began the position last week and is now responsible for managing the county's debt portfolio.
Dralle joins the nation's largest county by population at a time when it is facing some headwinds, including from the passage of the U.S. tax and spending bill known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and a $4 billion
County supervisors just
"Previous cuts of 8.5% and a hiring freeze helped balance our spending plan, but we're preparing for major new budget impacts to our health and social services departments in 2027," Nicchitta said. "We are doing all we can to prepare for the next phase of the storm."
When asked about her plans regarding managing the county's debt, Dralle pointed to its high credit ratings and said her first principal will be "do no harm."
The county has AAA issuer ratings from Fitch Ratings and S&P Global Ratings and Aa1 rating from Moody's Ratings. All assign stable outlooks.
S&P cited the county's positive financial performance over the past decade and above average reserves compared with those of state and national peers and its established management team with a track record of navigating through economic downturns when it affirmed the rating in August ahead of the county's plans to issue roughly $1 billion in lease revenue bonds. The rating agency assigned a AA-plus to the lease revenue bonds.
"We believe these attributes are key to maintaining credit quality as the county contends with the recent passage of the U.S. tax and spending bill (also referred to as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act) and the $4 billion settlement related to Assembly Bill No.218 (AB 218) that could negatively affect operations and health services," S&P analysts said.
The county — like others across the state, including the cities of Santa Monica and Los Angeles Unified School District — has been grappling with liabilities from lawsuits brought after state lawmakers extended the deadline for adult survivors of sexual abuse to file claims against local governments.
When the position opened, Dralle saw it as a "unique opportunity," to take what she learned as a banker and apply it directly to the public sector, "and do some good and contribute."
Reflecting on her path, Dralle noted that like many public finance bankers, her career was non-traditional. She initially wanted to be a public defender.
She has been a banker for the majority of her career, the exception being a stint working for Arizona state government earlier. She worked for the state's Department of Commerce and Department of Transportation on debt-related activity. That position came after she had worked seven years as a banker.
Prior to joining Cabrera Capital, she was an executive director in public finance at UBS, which
Like many public finance bankers in senior management positions, she didn't have some vision in college of a public finance career because municipal debt issuance wasn't widely taught in college in 1987.
"I thought I was going to be a public defender," Dralle said. "I wanted to be in Arizona and didn't get into any of the law schools there, which set me on my path."
Most investment bankers in public finance have not taken the traditional route of bankers in other sectors, she said.
People often come to the role by having a background in public policy, having worked as an attorney or having been a politician.
"Like any good Gen-Xer, I didn't have any idea," Dralle said. "I was pre-law. I had an interest in public policy and politics with a small p."
She graduated college in 1987 and got hired as a secretary at Rauscher Pierce Refsnes, which was acquired by RBC in 2000 amid its plans to expand its U.S. wealth management and brokerage business.
At that time, she said, she didn't know what present value was, or what a bond was.
"I got an immediate education in finance and in public policy," Dralle said.
Why people stay is the ability to work on transactions that affect people's lives, she said.
"When you have been in the industry for a while, you tend to hear over and over from people in it that they enjoy the fact they get to work on big, interesting projects that affect people's daily lives," Dralle said. "That is pretty cool."
Dralle, an Iowa native, moved to Los Angeles in 2013 when she joined JP Morgan, after living in Arizona for 25 years.
The county's best-in-class management has guided it through prior crises and it will get through the current challenges, she said.
