Lisa Marie Harris has served as Director of Finance/Treasurer for the San Diego County Water Authority (wholesaler) since May 2014 reporting to the Deputy General Manager/General Manager supporting a 36-member board of directors representing a 3.3 million population. Harris has a broad range of responsibilities in a highly complex & regulated industry of water delivery further complementing her board experience.  She has operational P&L responsibility at the Water Authority overseeing the bi-annual $1.7 billion budget, the $2.1 billion debt portfolio rated (AAA, AA2, AA+), the $503 million investment portfolio, and the annual water rate setting process.   She also oversees the annual preparation of the Water Authority’s financial statements and responsible for translating those financial statements into information used for filing with various regulatory agencies.  The San Diego Business Journal awarded Harris as the calendar year 2022 San Diego CFO (public sector) for successful implementation of a financial strategy resulting in the mitigation of water rate volatility for the Water Authority during the worldwide pandemic/economic recession.

Ms. Harris led the Water Authority through its most recent and important challenges during complicated and highly visible regulatory, investor, and media environments including the crisis management of volatile and uncertain revenues resulting in a rating agency negative outlook downgrade from S&P.  Through the strategic management of stabilizing revenues, reducing expenditures and debt restructuring, S&P restored the outlook to stable within nine months; an effort that usually spans two years.  Currently, Ms. Harris is leading the Water Authority’s ESG efforts including the development of annual ESG Water Authority report.