Title: Debt Program Manager
Firm: Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, Office of Finance
Age: 39
Giedre Ball has lived in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area since leaving her native Lithuania to attend American University as an undergraduate.
As debt program manager for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, Giedre manages a $7.6 billion debt portfolio that includes around $500 million in swaps. She also manages the authority’s investor relations and continuing disclosure compliance.
The authority operates Dulles International and Reagan National Airports, the Dulles Toll Road, and construction of an extension of the passenger rail service to Dulles airport on the Silver Line of the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused “a cataclysmic shift downward” in the authority’s revenues, she said. “Aviation is at the forefront of taking the brunt of this.”
The $230 million in federal aid from the CARES Act has helped and the authority has more than $1 billion cash reserves it has been built up over the years.
Even so, she said the authority has had to take austerity measures and cut all discretionary spending,and "adjust our activity. We are preparing the budget for 2021 and shrinking everything.”
Under her leadership, the authority has issued more than $2 billion in Airport System and Dulles Toll Road bonds over the last five years.
Giedre earned a bachelor’s degree at American University’s Kogod School of Business and a master’s degree in finance from George Washington University.
Married with a five-year-old daughter and a 10-year-old son, she has been working from home since late March. The demands of balancing her job have grown since her daughter started kindergarten through virtual learning.
She also serves as treasurer for the Lithuanian School of Washington, serves on the board of the Women in Public Finance Virginia Chapter and is a member of the Debt Committee of the Government Finance Officers Association.
