Helen Robbins-Meyer

County of San Diego

Helen N. Robbins-Meyer is the Chief Administrative Officer for the County of San Diego. As the County’s highest ranking executive, she manages a workforce of more than 15,000 employees and an annual budget of $5 billion. Ms. Robbins-Meyer implements policies set by the Board of Supervisors and oversees a wide-reaching operation that consists of more than 40 departments. She was appointed to this position by the five-member Board of Supervisors in August 2012. She is the first woman to serve as CAO for the County of San Diego. Previously, Ms. Robbins-Meyer worked closely with longtime CAO Walt Ekard and the County’s executive team as Assistant Chief Administrative Officer (ACAO). She served in a Chief Operating Officer capacity, focusing on achieving excellence in all areas of County government. Her priorities also included promoting excellent customer service, continuous measurable improvement and technology innovations. Ms. Robbins-Meyer’s efforts led to the County of San Diego being named one of the four best-run counties in the nation by Governing Magazine. Ms. Robbins-Meyer also uses her extensive private sector experience to infuse and maintain business disciplines throughout the County. She helped develop the County's General Management System (GMS), which guides the County’s operations and has been recognized with many awards, including a San Diego County Taxpayers Association Grand Watchdog Award for accountability and excellence in government. Ms. Robbins-Meyer led the integration of the GMS into every facet of County operations and uses the GMS to maintain the County's structurally-balanced budget, prudent reserves, top bond ratings and infrastructure maintenance and replacement program. During her tenure as Chair of the County's Information Technology Management Committee, Ms. Robbins-Meyer helped County executives establish a vision and technology strategy for the first decades of the 21st century. She oversaw implementation of the largest County outsourcing effort to date: an aggressive plan that contracted out computer and telephone services and implemented new resource planning systems. She also led an initiative to encourage the County workforce to become more technology-savvy, mobile, adaptable and responsive to change. Ms. Robbins-Meyer joined the County in 1997 as Deputy Chief Administrative Officer for the Community Services Group. With her focus on customer service and efficiency, she led the County's first managed competition process in which County Fleet employees reengineered their operations, saving taxpayers $1.6 million and beating all private sector competitors. Before working for the County, Ms. Robbins-Meyer was the Director of Planning and Internal Operations at TRW, Avionics Systems Division, a $200-million aerospace division located in Rancho Bernardo. During her 15-year tenure at TRW, she served in numerous roles in finance, contract and administrative management. She was a member of TRW's Group Information Resource Technology Council. Ms. Robbins-Meyer holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government from the College of William and Mary. She resides in North County with her husband and four children.