People
Your Primary Contacts
John Ghilarducci
Utility Rate, Fee and Management Consulting
John Ghilarducci is an FCS GROUP President, principal and shareholder with thirty-one years of professional experience including twenty-eight with the firm. His practice focuses on all aspects of utility and general services system development charges (SDCs) and financial rate studies, from technical modeling and public involvement to ordinance drafting and implementation. He has formed stormwater and transportation utilities and has developed water, sewer, stormwater, transportation and parks rates and charges for dozens of clients. John is a recognized technical rate and finance expert and provides litigation support/expert witness testimony throughout the Northwest.
John received his BS in Economics at the University of Oregon and MPA in Organization and Management at the University of Washington.
Angie Sanchez Virnoche
Utility Rate and Fee Consulting
Angie Sanchez Virnoche is an FCS GROUP Vice President, principal and shareholder with twenty-six years of experience providing financial services in a variety of capacities for water, sewer, stormwater, solid waste and electric utilities.
Angie’s utility rate expertise covers a broad range of areas including, expert review of the rate-setting framework and methodology used by clients, development of utility rates by service level, establishing renewals and replacement capital funding targets, evaluating fund balances, and development of a minimum charges.
Angie provides financial services to clients throughout the United States and serves on the American Water Works Association National Rates and Charges Subcommittee and AWWA Standards Committee and is a contributing author of the AWWA M1 manual on Principles of Water Rates, Fees and Charges. She also serves on the Northwest Public Power Association Board of Trustees and is the Rate-Setting presenter for the Washington State Department of Commerce Infrastructure Academies and one-day Rate Setting Workshops. She was also recently appointed to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Environmental Finance Advisory Board.
She received her BS in Business Administration and Finance at Oregon State University.
Todd Chase, AICP, LEED AP
Economic Services
Todd Chase is a principal, shareholder and economist with thirty-four years of experience in management consulting, financial analysis and economic analysis for public-and private-sector clients. He has managed over 150 impact rate studies, annexation studies, funding strategies, and capital facility plans, with emphasis on growth management and sustainable “green” infrastructure. One of his specialties is providing detailed economic and fiscal impact assessments of the costs and strategies for implementing public and private improvements.
A recognized leader in Oregon on economic development policy issues, he is an appointed member of Oregon’s Department of Land Conservation and Development Economic Development Planning Advisory Committee, and the Clackamas Economic Development Commission. In his free time, Todd enjoys sailing out on the water.
He received his BS in Economics at University of Florida.
Martin Chaw
Financial Planning and Analysis
Martin Chaw is a project manager at FCS GROUP. Martin has over thirty-one years of professional experience in state, local and regional governmental finance and policy analysis. His current areas of practice include utility and general management consulting, with a particular focus on budgeting, financial planning, and program evaluation. Prior to joining FCS GROUP, Martin worked as an analyst and fiscal manager for King County, the State of Washington and for several local municipalities including the cities of Bellevue, Redmond and Auburn.
Martin particularly enjoys the satisfaction of helping his clients improve public service delivery by leaving lasting tools and resources. Outside of work, Martin volunteers for local philanthropic organizations and enjoys traveling and reading.
He received his BA from the University of Washington and MPA at Seattle University.
Jason Mumm
Utility Management Consulting
Jason Mumm is an FCS GROUP Principal with twenty-two years of financial and economic experience for water, wastewater, and stormwater utilities. He is a nationally recognized expert in utility rates, fees, and charges and has helped author significant portions of the American Water Works Association’s guidelines for water utility rates.
His noted areas of specialty include extensive work on the topics of affordability of water/sewer services – especially in consent decree situations – and regionalization of utility infrastructure. Jason has served as a court-appointed expert in Colorado, Hawaii, Texas, Nova Scotia, Oregon, North Carolina, and New Mexico.
He has held public office as a water and sewer board member, served in the US Army, and earned a BS from Colorado State University and an MBA from the University of Colorado. He currently leads FCS GROUP’s office in Boulder, CO.
Chad Janicki
Financial Officer
Chad Janicki is FCS GROUP’s Chief Financial Officer and operations manager. Chad provides over a decade of experience in finance, accounting policies, human resources and information technology implementation. His responsibilities consist of directing accounting processes, facilities management, administrative roles, information technology, and human resources management. Prior to joining FCS GROUP, Chad held management positions in commercial banking, professional service, and finance industries.
He received his education at Cañada College and North Seattle Community College and has been a member of multiple professional organizations including the California Capital Loan Committee.
Scott Lester
Business Development
Scott W. Lester is FCS GROUP’s marketing and business development director with over twenty years of experience providing marketing communications for professional service firms. His work involves supporting teams and clients to address infrastructure challenges, system resiliency and community development. He is responsible for market research, strategic planning, client relationship management, and proposal development.
Outside of business development, he enjoys being outside, cycling, hiking, cross country skiing, and coaching his childrens’ various athletic teams. Scott holds Bachelor degrees in Communications and Global Affairs with a minor in Anthropology from Pacific Lutheran University and a MBA in Business Administration.
Your Project Team
Amanda Levine
Amanda Levine is an FCS GROUP analyst with experience in water, sewer and stormwater rate and fee development studies, including data collection and research. She also specializes in indirect cost allocation planning. Amanda provides data analysis and spreadsheet modeling.
Amanda enjoys being engaged in the complex projects that this industry has to offer, and getting into the weeds with research. When she is not entrenched in spreadsheets, she enjoys getting out to see the world through travel and painting.
She received her BA in History and Medical Anthropology and Global Health at the University of Washington.
Amanda Smith
Amanda Smith is FCS GROUP’s office/project assistant with many years of customer service and over 5 years of corporate office experience. As our office/project assistant, Amanda ensures the firm’s daily operations run smoothly and uses her versatile skill set to meet the firm’s ever-changing needs. Amanda is often the first point of contact for many of our clients and is dedicated to providing them with excellent service.
Ashley Romans
Ashley Romans is the FCS GROUP marketing coordinator focused on proposal development, conference coordination, and digital marketing. Ashley has over thirteen years of administrative and marketing experience with a background in engineering and real estate markets.
Ashley received a BA in Political Science and a BA in English with a Writing Specialization from Central Washington University
Andy Baker
Andy Baker is an FCS GROUP project manager with thirteen years of utility finance consulting experience, serving water, wastewater, stormwater, and non-potable water utilities across the country. Andy specializes in complex financial modeling, including cost-of-service analysis, water budget-based rates, and GIS-based modeling of affordability impacts and service area changes.
Andy enjoys answering challenging financial questions and has a passion for making capital projects affordable for both utilities and the people they serve. During his free time, Andy likes to go for long bike rides in search of the best cinnamon roll Washington has to offer.
He received his BS in Civil Engineering as well as a BA in Spanish and International Studies from Lafayette College.
Brooke Tacia
Brooke Tacia is an FCS GROUP project manager with thirteen years of financial analysis and modeling experience. She has performed rate analyses, revenue requirement studies, cost-of-service assessments, general facility and connection charge analyses, and financial chapter development for water, sewer, stormwater and electric utilities. In addition, Brooke has developed rates and charges for conservation districts throughout Washington State.
A highlight of her job is helping educate clients on best practices and profiling the impact of certain decisions. In her free time, she cheers on local sport teams and can get lost in a good book.
She received her BA in Economics from Western Washington University.
Chase Bozett
Chase is an FCS GROUP senior analyst with three years of experience in water and wastewater rate and fee development studies. He provides data analysis and spreadsheet modeling support.
Chase loves working with numbers and being engaged in a vital industry with lots of interesting projects. When he is not crunching numbers, he likes to spend leisure time golfing or watching local sports.
He received his BA in Finance and Information Systems at the University of Washington.
Chris Gonzalez
Chris Gonzalez is an FCS GROUP senior project manager with sixteen years of utility rate and public finance experience. Specializing in developing utility rates and connection charges, he has served numerous water and wastewater utilities throughout the western United States.
Nationally, Chris serves on the AWWA Rates and Charges Subcommittee. He enjoys solving client challenges and helping others anyway he can. He also moonlights as a martial-arts instructor and carries a black belt in aikido, judo, and jujutsu.
Chris completed his BSE in Operations Research and Financial Engineering at Princeton University.
Colton Richard
Colton Richard is an FCS GROUP water resources and utility finance analyst. Colton offers a unique qualitative and quantitative set of skills in preparing analytical models and developing financial strategies to support utility operations. Previous experience includes water policy analysis across the Western United States, as well as research and quantitative modeling for water resource and agricultural organizations.
Colton received an MBA with a Concentration in Finance and Water Resources from the Leeds School of Business, and holds a BA in Economics, Environmental Studies from the University of Colorado. Colton also received a graduate certificate in Water Engineering & Management during his graduate studies.
Diane Harmon
Diane Harmon has been with the firm for 18 years. As Accounting Manager, she is in charge of all accounting functions, insurance compliance, contract paperwork stipulation, voice and data networks, and client billing and assistance with human resources duties.
Doug Gabbard
Doug Gabbard is a project manager with thirteen years of experience in government finance. After earning his MBA at the University of Oregon and then serving as a financial analyst in state and local governments in Oregon, Doug began his consulting career with FCS GROUP in 2011. Doug has guided local governments in Oregon and Washington through the setting of utility rates and impact fees, and he is an expert is system development charges.
Doug sees fiscal sustainability as the central challenge of local government. His passion is to help governments understand the full, ongoing costs of both their services and their assets. Only when those costs are quantified and compared with available revenue can governing bodies make informed decisions about the level of service that can be sustainable. In his spare time, Doug enjoys plane spotting from the top of the PDX parking garage.
Gordon Wilson
Gordon Wilson is an FCS GROUP senior program manager with expertise in financial and organizational analysis for water, wastewater and stormwater utilities and other local government services. He has thirty-five years of experience working in finance and management for the public sector, including various roles within city governments. His experience inside local governments allows him to approach management and financial consulting projects from a client perspective.
Since joining FCS GROUP, Gordon has conducted cost of service and user fee studies, long-term financial plans, and financial policy reviews for utilities and other local government functions. He has gained particular expertise in analyzing strategic business choices for utilities.
He received his BA in Political Science at Brigham Young University. He later earned his Master of Public Policy degree at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and his MBA at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.
Luke Slaughterbeck
Luke Slaughterbeck is an FCS GROUP senior analyst with three years of experience in water and stormwater rate and fee development studies. He provides data analysis and spreadsheet modeling. He also specializes in cost allocation planning.
When he is not in the office, he enjoys traveling and cheering on our local sports teams here in the Pacific Northwest.
Luke received a BA in International Business from Washington State University’s Honors college.
Matthew Hobson
Matt is an FCS GROUP project manager with expertise in financial and policy analysis for solid waste utilities including rate design, financial forecasting, program evaluation, strategic planning, and operations analysis. He has eleven years of experience working in budget and solid waste management for the public sector, including roles with city and county governments.
He enjoys working with government agencies to design financial policy choices that achieve community goals and are supported by robust analytics and operational feasibility. If you were ever to see him outside of the office, it would most likely be on a bicycle or hiking with his family.
He has a BS in Political Science from Idaho State University and a MP Aff. in Public Affairs from the University of Texas.
Melanie Hobart
Melanie Hobart is an FCS GROUP project consultant with twelve years of public sector business management and financial consulting experience. She has performed water and electric utility rate studies and financial forecasting throughout Washington State and Alaska. Melanie’s electric utility finance experience includes load forecast analysis, rate setting, and policy and regulatory analysis.
What she enjoys the most about her work is engaging with public utilities on developing sustainable solutions. When she is not problem solving her way through a model, she rows with a local Seattle rowing team.
She has a BA in Environmental Studies and Psychology and a MPA from the University of Washington.
Melissa Firestone
Melissa D. Firestone is an FCS Group project consultant, with over 18 years of experience in the US energy and public utility space. Melissa has evaluated and developed revenue requirement analysis and the subsequent cost allocation and rate design aspects of cost-of-service models, for both investor-owned and municipal electric and gas utilities. Melissa’s expertise extends to the broader US energy markets with significant experience in developing supply/demand models that analyze and forecast energy balances and prices. Melissa’s work experience includes working directly for companies, in addition to over a decade of providing consulting services to clients in both the public utility and the energy production sectors.
Melissa has a BS in Business Economics and a MS in Economics with Public Utility/Regulatory Economics emphasis from the University of Wyoming.
Owen Reynolds
Owen Reynolds is an FCS GROUP project consultant who has twenty-two years professional experience in public sector planning and geographic information system (GIS) analysis.
Owen provides asset management analysis to cities, counties, utility districts and engineering firms focused on engineering, integrating and managing complex GIS / IS technology projects and systems. Owen has experience utilizing GIS databases to implement and track stormwater maintenance activities tied to NPDES permit regulations.
He received his BS in Geographic Information Science from Western Carolina University and Masters of City and Regional Planning from Clemson University.
Paul Quinn
Paul Quinn is an FCS GROUP project consultant with eight years of financial research and analytical experience including cost of service and rate modeling engagements throughout the Northwest.
Paul enjoys his work because it not only has a positive effect on the municipality that we are working with, but also the public that they serve. Outside of work he enjoys beekeeping, kayaking, and shooting sporting clays.
He received his BA in Environmental Studies with a minor in Economics from Bucknell University.
Sam Ault
Sam Ault is an FCS GROUP analyst who specializes in water, sewer and stormwater utility rate modeling. He has performed in-depth analysis of program financial conditions, and prepared reports detailing the results for city and special purpose district clients throughout the Western US. Previous experience includes project development and analysis for clean water nonprofit agencies.
Sam received a MPA from the University of Oregon and a BA in Political Science from Virginia Tech.
Sergey Tarasov
Sergey Tarasov is an FCS GROUP senior project manager with fourteen years of experience in rate design and financial feasibility analysis for electric, water, sewer, stormwater and solid waste utilities. His areas of expertise are in customer statistics analyses creating customer specific profiles to aid in detailed load forecasting (electric), revenue requirement development, cost-of-service analysis, rate design analysis and unit cost determination. Sergey is a member of the Northwest Public Power Association and enjoys spending time with his family when not hard at work.
Sergey holds a BS in Economics from the University of Washington.
Tage Aaker
Tage Aaker is an FCS GROUP project manager with nine years of consulting experience in utility rate studies, rate modeling, utility valuations, government fee development, cost recovery programs, and economic analysis for clients in Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Alaska, California and Canada.
Tage specializes in developing sophisticated yet practical Excel-based rate modeling tools to calculate full cost-of-service, determine cost-benefit of alternatives and improve user experience through dashboards and calculators.
What energizes him about his work is the ability to problem solve and observe the short and long-term of adopted rate programs. When not working, he enjoys backpacking in the wild and playing Ultimate Frisbee.
He received his BA in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance at the University of Washington.
Tim Wood
Tim Wood is an economist with nine years of experience in economic and financial analysis for public-and private-sector clients inclusive of ports, cities, counties and special purpose districts. Tim’s expertise includes economic opportunity analysis (EOA), housing needs analysis (HNA) and benefit cost analysis (BCA) solutions. He has also developed and extensive portfolio of experience in supporting TIGER, INFRA Fastlane and other grant funding solutions.
Beyond his work within the economic development and master planning environment, Tim also works throughout the Northwest in developing cost recovery programs inclusive of rate and fee modeling for water, wastewater, stormwater, parks and transportation programs.
He received a BS in Political Science at the University of Oregon and a MS in Urban and Regional Planning at Portland State University.
Wyatt Zimbelman
Wyatt Zimbelman is an FCS GROUP senior analyst with four years’ experience in financial consulting for utilities and transportation agencies in the Western United States. He performs data analysis and spreadsheet modeling for water utilities. What he enjoys most about his work is the ability to solve complex problems that benefit the public and environment. Outside of work, Wyatt is a passionate local sports fan and music buff.
Wyatt received a BA in Finance from the University of Washington.
Zechariah Hazel
Zechariah Hazel is an FCS GROUP analyst with experience in water, sewer and stormwater rate and fee development studies, including data collection and research.
Zechariah has assisted clients throughout the Pacific Northwest with revenue requirement and cost-of-service studies, multi-year financial planning, and connection fee development. He has performed in-depth analysis of program financial conditions and prepared reports detailing the results.
Zechariah received a BA in Mathematics from the Willamette University.