Nikolai J. Sklaroff

Nikolai J. Sklaroff joined the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) as its Capital Finance Director in May 2022. As Capital Finance Director, he is responsible for developing, implementing, and administering the SFPUC Capital Financing activities across the agency. He leads a team of professionals supporting the agency’s capital project funding activities, including financing transactions, banking agreements, commercial paper program activities, credit rating activities, and debt administration, among others. The role serves in a key leadership function at the SFPUC. The Capital Finance Director manages the day-to-day operations of the SFPUC’s $6+ billion outstanding debt portfolio and the daily operations of the SFPUC’s $1.5 billion Commercial Paper Program across three enterprises, Water, Wastewater, and Power.

Nikolai has spent more than three decades in the public finance industry and most recently served as the Deputy Director of Finance responsible for the Debt & Treasury Management division in the City of San José. In that role, he oversaw teams managing the City’s $4.6 billion debt portfolio across all enterprises, managing the City’s $2.4 billion investment portfolio and managing the City’s banking operations. Nikolai has also spent 22 years as a senior public finance investment banker in San Francisco with Citigroup Global Markets, J. P. Morgan Securities – where he was national Head of Cultural Institutions investment banking – and Wells Fargo Securities. Prior to becoming an investment banker in 1997, Nikolai was a senior Moody’s Investors Service rating agency analyst and member of Moody’s rating committee. Nikolai began his career as a financial advisor with Public Financial Management, Inc., in his hometown of Philadelphia, where he received his degrees from the Wharton School and the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Pennsylvania, prior to moving to England (to live in a castle) to pursue his graduate degree. He pursued further graduate studies at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs prior to moving to San Francisco.

A frequent speaker at industry conferences and author on public finance topics, Nikolai has also served on multiple boards of directors and advisory committees. Nikolai is currently serving on the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) Debt Committee. As a former California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission (CDIAC) Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) member, Nikolai continues to enjoy assisting CDIAC with policy publications and seminars.