Sara Oberlies knew when she was a teenager that she wanted to pursue a job in the public finance sector, so she studied economics and applied statistics at Syracuse University in New York, then went on to earn her master’s degree in public sector financial management from the University of Maryland. After graduation, Oberlies went to Washington, D.C., to work as a policy analyst and lobbyist.
But that wasn’t where she wanted to stay.
“Lobbying is like being a cheerleader when you want to be on the field,” she said. “I wanted to inject myself into the industry.”
While based in D.C., Oberlies was frequently on business trips between coasts. Oberlies fell in love with San Francisco and a few months shy of 25 decided to make it her home. After a brief round of job interviews, she accepted an offer. But there was one problem: The position she accepted was based in Los Angeles, not San Francisco as she had hoped. But she decided to make the move anyway and has never left.
Oberlies, 36, was recently named the public finance group managing director in the downtown L.A. office of financial services company Stone & Youngberg.
Her day begins as early as 6 a.m., and she spends most of it working on debt service schedules and financing structures for different public agencies. Having worked in the public finance sector for more than a decade, Oberlies has seen many changes in the field, but she said the past few months have been the most challenging and unpredictable. After the fall of Lehman Bros., interest rates at which municipal governments must borrow have increased, and cities and counties are suffering from decreases in property values and sales revenues.
“We are looking at those possibilities for cities to balance the budget and address their capital or operating needs when their revenues are down,” she said. “We are trying to be very creative here.”
Oberlies is single and lives in Manhattan Beach. In her free time, she works on her Web site, FemmesonFootball.com, which is focused on explaining the sport from a woman’s perspective to a female audience. She’s partial to the Indianapolis Colts.
