Legacy public school consulting firm Moak Casey welcomes associate commissioner and chief school finance officer for the Texas Education Agency (TEA) Leo Lopez.
Lopez, who will take the role of chief financial officer in August 2022, is the latest to join the new powerhouse executive team at the firm, which serves school district leaders and policymakers in school finance and accountability. The company was acquired on July 1, 2022, by Dr. Buck Gilcrease, CEO; State Representative Dan Huberty (R-Humble), board member; Charles Clines, chairman of the board; Chris Huckabee, board member; and Charles Butt, investor.
“I am thrilled to join this team of visionary leaders and help Moak Casey continue building its legacy as Texas’ leading public school consulting firm. It’s an honor to be able to keep serving Texas school districts and guide them through the complexities of the State’s school finance system,” said Leo Lopez, Moak Casey CFO.
Lopez has 20 years of experience working in public school finance, most recently at the TEA where he led the Office of School Finance for the last six years. During that time, Lopez was instrumental in directly supporting the Texas Commission on Public School Finance and in the development and implementation of House Bill 3 (HB 3), an historic school finance bill passed by the 86th Texas Legislature in 2019, which modernized outdated formulas, increased the state share of funding and put more money into classrooms, teacher salaries and programs.
“As we were building our new executive team, we knew the importance of ensuring we could provide a wealth of experience to individual school districts. Leo’s extensive understanding of school finance, especially in regard to his work creating the formulas included in HB 3, makes him an excellent addition to our team of diverse professionals and ensures that Moak Casey will continue being the gold standard for school finance and accountability consulting across the State of Texas,” said State Rep. Dan Huberty, (R-Humble).
Before serving as chief school finance officer for TEA, Leo spent four years as the executive director of finance for Austin ISD (AISD), overseeing the budget, finance and accounting, treasury, risk management and Medicaid billing functions for the district.
“There are a handful of names in the Texas school finance landscape that are recognizable on a first name only basis. Leo is one of those names. I have known Leo for most of my career in school finance and his tremendous depth of knowledge, calmness and genuine desire to serve students have always stood out. I am happy for Leo and for the clients of Moak Casey as I am confident he will continue to make positive impacts on the students throughout Texas,” said Christopher Smith, chief financial officer for Katy Independent School District.
Moak Casey serves as an independent source of high-quality, data-driven public education information that is instrumental to school district leaders and policymakers. The firm, in its 25th year, provides up-to-the minute research and analyses of issues impacting public school finance, accountability and assessment, economic development and other areas of education to help clients smoothly navigate the intricacies of the Texas Legislature.