About Rod

Rod has over 35 years of management experience in local government. He has served in several California cities, including City Manager in Santa Monica, Poway, San Rafael, and Monrovia. He has also served as Assistant City Manager of Walnut Creek, California. Prior to city management, he was a senior management consultant for the firm Deloitte, Haskins, and Sells and assistant director of operations for the Boston Housing Authority.

Rod is an expert facilitator, trainer, and organizational development consultant. He provides consulting assistance to government leaders in organizational analysis, leadership development, executive coaching, strategic planning, team building, executive performance evaluation, and governing body/staff effectiveness.

Rod has held leadership positions in professional associations, is a frequent speaker at professional conferences, writes articles for professional journals, and has received awards from professional and civic associations. In 2017, Rod was honored by The International City/County Management Association (ICMA) with its Distinguished Service Award. He has served as the western regional vice president of ICMA and on its executive board of directors. Rod has also been president of the City Managers Department of the League of California Cities and on the League’s board of directors.

He served on the boards of directors of the Institute for Local Government (Chair) and Davenport Institute for Public Engagement and Civic Leadership and as a Senior Partner for Management Partners. Rod chaired the ICMA Taskforce on Leadership and the League of Cities pension reform committee and served as city manager in residence at Stanford, Pepperdine, Cornell, USC, and UC Berkeley. He has been Chair of the HdL Companies Board of Directors for six years.

Rod was an adjunct professor in the USC, San Francisco State University, and Long Beach State University MPA programs, lectures in the Stanford Local Government Summer Institute, and has been an ICMA Credentialed Manager since 2008. Rod was an instructor for the California Police Officer Standards and Training Commission (POST) and served as Director of Training for the Center for Public Safety Management.

Rod holds an undergraduate degree in economics and political science from Yale and a master’s in education and public administration from Harvard University. He is deeply committed to the combination of local representative democracy paired with professional management for cities, counties, and districts. As a consultant, he seeks to assist local governments in rendering critical local services, programs, and activities with effectiveness, efficiency, and equity.