Last month it was my honor to host a luncheon for Neel Kashkari, former Assistant US Treasury Secretary, who is considering running for Governor of California in 2014. I first met Neel in June at a breakfast hosted for him by a group of Newport Beach business owners. I was so inspired by his no nonsense approach to turn California around that I invited him to come to San Diego and speak to a group of local business leaders and Hughes Marino team members at our office downtown.

A political moderate with a strong financial background, Kashkari has developed an aggressive reform agenda focused on helping Californians succeed through improved public education and job opportunities. He believes that our state’s core deficiency is its failing public education system. As he explained, poor education leads to an underperforming workforce, a lack of innovation and impeded job growth. Our state is doing a poor job creating the workforce that will be needed for the innovation economy of the future, and hundreds of thousands of kids are not getting the training they will need to climb the economic opportunity ladder as generations have before them.

Kashkari is fundamentally a businessperson, and brings a bipartisan approach to solving political gridlock. He sees California’s problems as business challenges, whether it’s dealing with a busted, underfunded pension system, fixing our schools, or changing tax policy so that more people can have jobs and participate in funding our state’s needs. A smart thinker and articulate presenter, Neel is prepared to search for real answers, not just more legislation.

His refreshing perspective resonated with the group at our office, as I am sure it will with voters should he decide to run. The citizens of California and the businesses that drive our economy are not getting value for our tax dollars. We deserve better from our government, and I believe that Neel will be the right person to deliver it in the future, should he formally declare his candidacy for governor.

The views expressed in this post are David Marino’s and do not represent an official endorsement by Hughes Marino, Inc.