Title: Senior Managing Consultant
Firm: PFM Group Consulting LLC
Age: 35
It's not surprising Joe Buckshon was attracted to public finance: His family has a long tradition of local government and community involvement.
Both his father and grandfather were elected officials in Buckshon's northeastern Pennsylvania hometown.
After graduating with a Master of Public Administration from the University of Pennsylvania, Buckshon worked in marketing and was struck by how many of his small business clients told him permitting, zoning and tax incentives had a huge impact on their business. Buckshon was intrigued. "Public finance became tangible to me," he said.
Prior to PFM, Buckshon served as a policy and performance fellow for the Department of Commerce for the city of Philadelphia. In 2017, he was a founder of Volunteering Untapped PHL, a non-profit dedicated to increasing volunteerism in the city.
As senior managing consultant at PFM, Buckshon's expertise includes economic incentives, and he has co-led PFM's ongoing tax incentive evaluation engagement with the state of Oklahoma.
When asked to describe any projects that really stand out, Buckshon has a lot to choose from, including spearheading PFM's participation in developing a bond market program with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and co-lead for PFM's work with the Bloomberg Philanthropies What Works Cities program. "Every project is unique," he said. "My best learning experiences come from our own internal team conversations as we work through how we can provide value to clients."
Buckshon never set out to manage a team and is somewhat surprised he has found satisfaction leading mentorship programs and councils at PFM. "I'm really proud that my team genuinely looks to me for coaching and leadership," he said. "It means a lot to me to be able to help someone."
