Members of the Commission
Fiona Ma, CPA
State Treasurer
Fiona Ma is California’s 34th State Treasurer. She was elected on November 6, 2018, with more votes (7,825,587) than any other candidate for treasurer in the state's history. She is the first woman of color and the first woman Certified Public Accountant (CPA) elected to the position. The State Treasurer’s Office was created in the California Constitution in 1849. It provides financing for schools, roads, housing, recycling and waste management, hospitals, public facilities, and other crucial infrastructure projects that better the lives of residents. California is the world’s fifth-largest economy and Treasurer Ma is the state’s primary banker. Her office processes more than $2 trillion in transactions, within a typical year. She provides transparency and oversight for the government’s investment portfolio and accounts, as well as for the state’s surplus funds. Treasurer Ma oversees an investment portfolio that has averaged well over $100 billion during her administration—a significant portion of which is beneficially owned by more than 2,200 local governments in California. She serves as agent of sale for all State bonds and is trustee of billions of dollars of state indebtedness.
Clothilde V. Hewlett
Commissioner of the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation
Serving as Undersecretary of the State and Consumer Services Agency and Interim Director of the Department of General Services, she managed numerous state agencies with a wide range of oversight that included procurement, real estate, and consumer affairs. During California’s 2001 energy crisis, she led the team that created the Flex Your Power Campaign. During the events of Sept. 11, 2001, she was responsible for oversight of the state of California Victim Compensation Board, providing support to survivors and families who lost loved ones during the terrorist attack.
Prior to her appointment, Commissioner Hewlett served as a board member for the Cal Alumni Association (CAA). In 2016, she became the second woman and first person of color in over 144 years to serve as Executive Director of the CAA, responsible for overseeing an organization that serves more than 550,000 alumni of the University of California, Berkeley.
Commissioner Hewlett previously served at the State Bar of California and created the Moral Character Unit for admission to practice law in California, which is still in place today. As a partner at K&L Gates and then Nossaman, LLP, she focused on government contracting, crisis management, appropriations, and diversity initiatives. She worked closely with her financial services clients to address the challenges they faced in a regulatory environment and to ensure they provided consumer protection. For more than 12 years, she has been a member of the Board of Directors for the San Francisco 49ers Foundation and is committed to continuing the DFPI’s equity goals to reach underserved communities through proactive consumer education, outreach, and engagement.
Commissioner Hewlett received a B.A. in political science from the University of California Berkeley and her J.D. from the UC Berkeley School of Law.
Commissioner Hewlett was a co-founder and the first president of Black Women Lawyers of Northern California. She has been recognized for her many significant contributions throughout her career and has been honored with an assemblage of awards in recognition of her accomplishments, including the Black Women Lawyers of Northern California Outstanding Achievement Award, the San Francisco Business Times Forever Influential Honor Roll, and Women Leading Change from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women.
James D. Hicken
Appointed by the Governor
President, Chief Executive Officer, Legacy Bank
Commissioner James “Jim” Hicken is a trusted leader dedicated to the highest standards of quality and ethics in banking with over 40 years of financial services experience. With an exemplary background in credit administration, lending, operations, compliance, treasury management, foreign trade, and foreign exchange, his uncompromising diligence and high-performing portfolios make him a coveted resource in the banking world. The Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians hand-selected Commissioner Hicken in December 2018 to create the charter, strategic plan, policies, and procedures for Legacy Bank. Commissioner Hicken was instrumental in the formation of the bank and is Legacy Bank’s president and Chief Executive Officer.
Byron Lopez
Appointed by the Governor
Senior Policy Analyst, Service Employees International Union
Commissioner Byron Lopez has been a Senior Policy Analyst at Service Employees International Union Local 2015 since 2015. In his capacity at Local 2015, Commissioner Lopez provides policy analysis on long-term care issues and other issues impacting workers and their communities. He is also a member of the Board of Governors of the Alameda Alliance for Health which provides health care coverage for residents of Alameda County. Commissioner Lopez is proud to be a son of indigenous Mayans from Guatemala and got his motivation to be part of the labor movement from his parents who were garment workers since the 1980s in Los Angeles.
Manisha Padi
Appointed by the Governor
Assistant Professor of Law, Berkeley Law School
Commissioner Manisha Padi’s research and teaching focus on consumer finance, specifically savings, debt, and the impact of law and regulation on private markets. Her scholarship has appeared in the Michigan Law Review and the Boston University Law Review, as well as being cited by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. Prior to joining Berkeley Law, Commissioner Padi was a Bigelow Fellow and NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Chicago. Padi holds a PhD in Economics from MIT and a JD from Yale.
Paulina Gonzalez-Brito, (They/Them/Elle)
Appointed by the Senate Committee on Rules
Chief Executive Officer, California Reinvestment Coalition
Under Commissioner Paulina Gonzalez-Brito’s leadership, CRC has expanded its work to directly challenge systemic and structural racism within the U.S. financial system and to focus CRC’s work on building collective political and organizing power amongst and with frontline communities to close the racial wealth gap.
Commissioner Gonzalez-Brito has testified before the U.S. House, Senate and California Legislature on the need for greater oversight and accountability in the banking sector to prevent financial actors from extracting wealth from Black and Brown communities. They are frequently called upon to speak as an expert in the fields of Wall Street accountability, discrimination in lending, equitable reinvestment by financial institutions, racial and economic justice, and democratizing finance through alternative and community-owned financial models, and has been profiled/quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The L.A. Times, NPR, Univision, La Opinion and other national media outlets.
Miguel Santana
Appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly
President and Chief Executive Officer, Weingart Foundation
Commissioner Miguel A. Santana is President and CEO of the Weingart Foundation, which advances racial justice in Southern California through grantmaking and impact investing. Commissioner Santana has over 30 years of experience leading numerous fiscal, legislative, political, and community issues. He most recently served as President and C.E.O. of Fairplex, a regional community benefit organization based in Pomona, CA. Commissioner Santana was previously the City Administrative Officer for the City of Los Angeles, where he oversaw the City’s $9 billion budget and designed the City’s first comprehensive homeless strategy, resulting in a $1.2 billion voter-approved housing bond and a doubling of the City’s general fund investment on programs to end homelessness. Prior to joining the City, Commissioner Santana served as one of five Deputy Chief Executive Officers for Los Angeles County, overseeing all social service programs supporting children, families, veterans and persons experiencing homelessness. He engages in numerous civic efforts to create a more equitable Southern California region, including serving as Chair of the Committee for Greater L.A. He also serves on numerous nonprofit boards, including the Whittier College Board of Trustees. Commissioner Santana has a B.A. in Sociology and Latin American Studies from Whittier College and a master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University.
Virginia Varela
Appointed by the Senate Committee on Rules
Head of Community Banking, SoFi Bank
Commissioner Virginia Varela is the Head of Community Banking for SoFi Bank, N.A. She was the President and CEO of Golden Pacific Bank, a nationally chartered community bank headquartered in Sacramento for eight years until it was acquired by SoFi Technologies in February 2022, making it one of the largest approved fintech bank purchases in the nation. Before that, Virginia held executive and Board positions at three California community banks, including CEO/President/Director at the Bank of Rio Vista, President/Director at San Luis Trust Bank, and COO at Bank of the Orient.
Virginia first entered the banking industry as a bank examiner in 1984. Her experience includes various senior examiner and supervisory roles at the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, Federal Home Bank of San Francisco, Office of Thrift Supervision/Office of Comptroller of the Currency, and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. She is a Federal Reserve Bank Commissioned Senior Examiner, and a Treasury Department designated Certified Safety and Soundness Thrift Regulator and Federal Compliance Regulator.
Since 2010, Virginia has served on the Board of the California Bankers Association/Western Bankers Association and, from 2017 to the present, chairs the Federal Government Relations Committee. Virginia was a Director with the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco from 2019 to 2023 and chaired the Affordable Housing and Community Investment committee. In 2017, Virginia helped to start the Mercy Pedalers nonprofit, which focuses on direct outreach to persons experiencing homelessness on the streets. She is the President of the Board of this organization.’