Department of Finance Directors

Ana J. Matosantos served as Director of Finance in both the Brown and Schwarzenegger administrations, helping the state address and recover from the impact of the Great Recession. She is the youngest and first openly LGBTQIA+ individual to hold this position. She received her bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Stanford University in 1997. Matosantos was Governor Brown’s chief fiscal advisor as the state closed a $27 billion shortfall and transitioned from years of recurring budget deficits to multibillion-dollar surpluses. She played a key role in the enactment of California’s school financing and accountability system, the state’s financing and implementation of the Affordable Care Act, and the implementation of corrections realignment.

Before joining Finance in 2008, Matosantos served as deputy legislative secretary for Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs in the Office of the Governor, working on the administration’s comprehensive health care reform proposal. She was a member of the Health and Human Services Agency staff from 2004 to 2007, serving as assistant secretary for programs and fiscal affairs as well as associate secretary for legislative affairs. Prior to her executive branch service, Matosantos worked in the state senate as a consultant to the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services and as the human services consultant of the Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review. In August 2016, she was appointed by President Obama to serve on the seven-member Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board, charged with working with the government of Puerto Rico to achieve structural budget balance, restructure more than $120 billion in debts and obligations, and rebuild opportunity for the people of Puerto Rico after a decade of economic contraction and population decline.

In 2019, Matosantos was appointed the cabinet secretary in the Office of Governor Gavin Newsom.