Glancing at Mike Futrell’s resume, one might ask, “What hasn’t he done?”
He is a retired United States Navy captain with two submarine tours under his belt and 26 years of service; a former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives; a former senior staff member in the U.S. Senate; and he practiced corporate law for over a decade and is still licensed in Hawaii and Louisiana. Futrell has served as a California city manager for more than a decade.
He is also a graduate student at UC Merced.
As city manager in South San Francisco for nearly nine years, he drove the city out of the economic doldrums of the 2008 Great Recession, building its biotechnology business sector to become the largest single life science research cluster in the world with over 250 companies, while strengthening the city’s finances and achieving its first AAA credit rating.
He managed the city through the COVID-19 pandemic, opening the Economic Advancement Center to help businesses and residents recover, while expanding transit, building housing and completing the Economic Advancement Center to help businesses recover.
In 2023, Futrell started a new position as the city manager in Riverside, serving 325,000 residents, leading a staff of 2,600 employees, and managing an annual budget of $1.3 billion. He said he relocated from Silicon Valley because Riverside is California’s next great city.
“Riverside is a city on its way up; talented and hungry to succeed. I want to be a part of that exciting journey,” Futrell said. “All my life experiences to this point have contributed to what I believe will be my greatest success here in Riverside.”
Futrell earned a bachelor's degree in business/public administration and juris doctorate degree from Louisiana State University, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
