The first leader of FI$Cal, Michael Reyna was both project executive and project director of the troubled project when he started in 2010. Reyna described the former position as the face of the project and the latter as its engineer. He recommended that the post be split into two positions and it subsequently was.
The Texas native holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Texas, Austin and received a master’s degree in public policy in 1982 from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. While attending graduate school in Texas during the early 1980s, Reyna served as a private consultant to Governor Bill Clements’ long-range strategic planning effort known as the Texas 2000 Project. He became involved in local government after moving to Sacramento and was a founding board member of Meadowview Community Action, a local nonprofit agency. Reyna served as a principal advisor to the California Legislature on financial service industry regulation and a wide range of issues, including housing, economic development, local government finance, and political reform.
Reyna was appointed director of USDA Rural Development (then known as Farmers Home Administration) in California in 1993. Five years later, President Clinton appointed him to the Farm Credit Administration board of directors. He served concurrently on the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation board and became its chairman in 1999. Reyna left the federal government and became the CEO in 2005 of the Consumer Attorneys of California, a professional association representing plaintiff attorneys, and stayed for three years. He took a position as California Library Association executive director in December 2009, but one and a half weeks later he received an offer he couldn’t refuse and became executive director of the newly created FI$Cal Project.
He reportedly left FI$Cal for family reasons that are taking him out of state.
Official Biography (FI$Cal website)
A Letter from the President (California Library Association blog)
War of Words Targets Civil Justice System in California and the Weapon Is Fear (by Michael M. Reyna via California Progress Report)
Top FI$Cal Executive to Leave Project in December (by Ashley Nelson, TechWire)
