Dan Rich

Dan Rich is a local government leader with more than thirty years of public sector experience, including fourteen years as a city manager. He is a big-picture strategic thinker and someone who pays attention to the small details and the political context of a situation.

Dan’s proven interpersonal, communication, negotiation, and facilitation skills have served him well in developing highly effective teams over the course of his career and he has been involved with career development efforts of younger professionals for almost two decades.  He is passionate about helping grow talent in the public sector. 

He has a strong background in organizational development, strategic planning, and land use as well as extensive involvement in financial management, personnel, and policy analysis.  Dan provided strategic direction for developing and gaining stakeholder support for three successful revenue measures.

Dan served as Mountain View’s City Manager from 2011 through 2019, when he retired.  Mountain View is a full-service city with approximately 80,000 residents and 600 employees.  It is home to numerous well-known companies including Google, Intuit, and LinkedIn, as well as numerous startups.  Dan worked on complex land use projects and partnerships as well as award-winning long-range planning documents.  He was a leader on regional pension reform, transportation, and Next Gen employee development initiatives.  Dan also took pride in fostering effective Council relations and initiating employee wellness and engagement efforts.  He served as chair of the Santa Clara County City Managers Association and was a member of the League of California Cities’ pension reform task force.

Prior to Mountain View, Dan spent six years as the City of Campbell’s City Manager, four years as Assistant City Manager in Belmont, and nine years in the Sunnyvale City Manager’s office. He also spent five years working for members of Congress.

Since retiring, in addition to consulting, Dan has been working part-time at Stanford, teaching a public policy practicum, an introductory Land Use class, and a Local Government class. He also volunteers with local non-profits.

Dan is a Bay Area native and received his BA from U.C. Berkeley in Economics and Political Science and has a Master in Public Policy from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.