Sue Perez
4 min read
Massachusetts State Treasury
Sue Perez thought her stint at the Massachusetts Clean Water Trust would be temporary — a quick pit stop before she returned to her career in the corporate world.
But Perez was won over by the passion her colleagues exhibited for their jobs. In the public sector, Perez realized, “you can really be involved in something that makes a difference.”
For Perez, now the deputy state treasurer of Massachusetts, that difference takes the form of billions of dollars of bonds.
“To the citizens of Massachusetts, she’s an unknown hero,” Massachusetts Treasurer Deborah Goldberg said. “She has saved the commonwealth of Massachusetts hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Perez was hired by the Massachusetts Clean Water Trust in 2009 in a temporary position that took advantage of her background in corporate accounting to ensure the trust’s compliance with federal regulations.
By the time Goldberg was elected treasurer in 2014, Perez had found her footing and was the
“I could tell that she would be an ideal person to promote into the role as head of debt. You could just see it,” Goldberg said. “The way she would talk about deals, the way she would talk about saving the commonwealth money and getting the very best for the people of Massachusetts.”
It took a couple weeks to convince Perez to agree, Goldberg said. She finally accepted, but insisted on keeping her position at the Clean Water Trust.
Under Perez’s tenure, Massachusetts has issued $21.8 billion of GO and transportation bonds — $10.7 billion of which were refundings, which produced $1.4 billion of present value savings — and $2.7 billion of revenue anticipation notes.
In her 13 years as executive director of the
Perez also led the restructuring of the trust’s indenture and oversaw its first green and
“Sue Perez is unique to the public finance sector,” Andersen said. “She understands the market and importance of investors’ participation, as well as her responsibility to the commonwealth to achieve the lowest cost of capital.”
Perez said her passion comes from how interesting her position is.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, for instance, provided a big opportunity to learn. Perez was working around the clock to maintain government continuity.
“We would probably talk to the rating agencies once a week,” Perez said. “I was talking more to counsel and people in the governor’s office than my own family.”
Early in the pandemic, she negotiated what was then the biggest line of credit a state had ever received.
No single bank would have given the state more than $500 million, Perez said. But someone in the governor’s administration asked if she could request a billion dollars.
“I can ask for anything,” Perez told them. “So we asked for a billion or a billion and a half.”
They got $1.75 billion through working with banks’ corporate lending teams, the same way private-sector firms would, Perez said. The syndicate and line of credit are still intact and the commonwealth has wound down the line of credit to $500 million.
In August of 2022, Perez helmed the issuance of
The process required her to learn the ins and outs of unemployment, which was complicated by constantly changing federal policy.
Perez was reconciling bank accounts, trying to find the exact benefits and deposits the trust received from employers. She was talking to the trust’s team every day, and “appreciating that they were living in unprecedented times.”
The deal won best ESG deal of the year at the
In 2016, Perez was selected as one of the Public Sector Trailblazing Women in Public Finance. That honor came as a surprise, she said, but she appreciates the importance of being a woman in a leadership position in a state with widespread female leadership.
“If you look around, a lot of the agencies and a lot of the issuers in Massachusetts are actually run by women,” Perez said. “If you look at Massachusetts governance, we’ve got a female governor, we’ve got a female treasurer, we’ve got a female attorney general.”
Goldberg said Perez’s competence and creativity played a role in many of the state’s fiscal policy wins, such as early adoption of green bonds, pioneering investor website and conferences and successful taxable bond deals.
“From my point of view, she’s a rock star,” Goldberg said.
Perez’s induction into the Muni Hall of Fame, much like her Trailblazing Women in Public Finance award, was a surprise, she said. Her first reaction, she joked, was she should probably retire. But she’s looking forward to more years in her job.
“I’ve got to say, I really do love my job. I think things are getting more interesting every day,” Perez said.
The governor just launched a
Perez describes all of her career milestones and accomplishments — from joining the Clean Water Trust to navigating COVID to the unemployment deal — as “learning experiences.” And she sees more opportunities to learn.
