Mudra Patel

Title: Senior Managing Consultant
Firm: PFM Financial Advisors LLC
Age: 37

Mudra Patel was born and raised in India. Despite her parents' desires that she become an engineer, Patel was drawn to numbers and pursued a degree in finance. After college, Patel landed a job at CRISIL Global Research and Analytics, a rating agency in India. In 2013, CRISIL was bought by S&P. "I was in India doing U.S. public finance ratings and I found it super interesting," recalls Patel. "At S&P, they had different divisions and they put in a muni finance position. I fell in love."

While working at S&P, Patel continued to be drawn to the financial advisors listed on the inside cover of offer documents. "I started to think I want that to be my name. That's the next step for me, but it seemed pie in the sky at the time. I had no immediate plans to go to the U.S.," said Patel.

Then as fate would have it, Patel met her future husband and fell in love. Her now-husband was enrolling to graduate school in California, which pushed Patel to make the move to the U.S. Patel enrolled in Santa Clara University in California and received a Master of Science degree in finance.

Patel joined PFM in 2015. She has never looked back.

"I love Mondays as much as Fridays because I love what I do. I love the numbers, complexity of it and the people. Everyone appreciates our work and it's very fulfilling. I am going to retire here," said Patel.

Patel has quickly built a reputation for detailed analysis and complex modeling. She is a trusted advisor to her clients, possessing expertise in airports, transportation, and toll road agencies. Recently, Patel has been advising San Diego Associations of Government on a key project: State Route 11, an international border crossing.