The View from the Office. 

I met Donald Billings for lunch at the Coronado Brewing Company, on Coronado Island in San Diego Bay. I had the fancy pizza with pesto; Don got the fish tacos and fries. 

Coronado is famous for being the home of the Navy Seals and the Hotel “Del,” a massive National Historic Landmark built in 1888. The Del is a symbol of the Gilded Age and one of the last remaining wooden structures from the Victorian beach resort era. 

Don is a former Federal Reserve official and bank industry analyst. In the late 1980s he served as the expert at the Fed on the nation’s largest banks. He was the Fed’s representative to the FDIC during the Texas banking crisis. In the mid 1990s, he led the Treasury’s program to provide technical assistance to Russia and Eastern Europe. 

He later joined Promontory Financial Group where he worked with leading banks responding to the global financial crisis, consulting on capital plans and liquidity to help navigate the crisis. 

These days, Don spends a lot of his time thinking about the politics of water. 

Water — like the electric grid — is one of those issues we all take for granted until there is a drought or disruption. In places like California or Texas, however, it’s increasingly becoming a political issue that requires long-term planning. 

Don was previously appointed to head a committee overseeing the City of San Diego’s Public Utilities Department. He served on the panel for eight years until 2015. 

Water is one of the topics he writes about on LinkedIn and he does so when it’s clear that people don’t understand the facts or gravity of the situation. 

Right now he is analyzing the proposal for a desalination plant that would be located in Mexico on the Sea of Cortez. The $5.5 billion project would also include a 200-mile pipeline to transport desalinated water across the U.S. border to a reservoir west of Phoenix, Arizona.

Don thinks there may be better options. 

I was amazed that I had not previously heard anything about such a large project, one on which so much of the economy of the Western states depends. 

The world may be global, but water is local. 

You can connect with Don about banks, water or anything via LinkedIn or DM me for an intro.