Terry Matsumoto, the long-time chief financial officer for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro), retired on May 18.
Matsumoto served as Metro’s CFO for the past 10 years and also served in the executive cabinet of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, a predecessor to Metro. He has more than 30 years of financial and administrative policy development and management experience in the private and public sectors.
Matsumoto is known for his leadership in Metro’s financial functions, including accounting, budget, treasury and risk management. In addition to being responsible for the specification, development, implementation and maintenance of Metro’s enterprise accounting and financial systems, he was the executive in charge of the development of Metro’s annual capital and operating budgets, which have grown from $3 billion in 1993 to more than $5 billion in 2014.
He served as the financial officer responsible for providing programmatic oversight of major regional transportation projects and initiatives and oversaw the funding of bus and rail service in Los Angeles County that includes Metro and 30-plus municipal and local transit service providers.
Matsumoto helped draft a financial plan for construction of new subway services, including the openings of all three segments of the Red and Purple lines, and light-rail projects, including the Green, Gold, and Expo lines. The funding included more than $2 billion in federal new starts grants and $2 billion in state grants from various sources such as Proposition 116 and Propositions 1A and 1B rail bonds.