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Our final “Policy and a Pint” of 2019 is with a former farm boy from the Central Valley who is now Gavin Newsom’s go-to guy for advice on California ‘s economy and business affairs, and also chair of the state’s High Speed Rail project.

Lenny Mendonca grew up milking cows on his family’s farm in Turlock, but he also found time to play baseball, be a Scout and an altar boy, and get elected as Turlock High’s student body president. Then Mendonca went the Ivy League route: He was accepted to Harvard University (where he also became student body president) and got a degree in economics, followed by a Stanford MBA, a partnership at management consulting mega-firm McKinsey, and a bunch of other top credentials and efforts that would take up a whole bunch of page space here.

All that cred impressed Governor Newsom so much he tapped Mendonca to be his Chief Economic and Business Advisor, the director of the state’s Office of Business and Economic Development (also known as GO-Biz), and, last but not least, the chair of California’s High Speed Rail Commission.

Oh, and in his spare time, Mendonca runs a couple of businesses. too — his love of homebrewing led him to start Half Moon Bay Brewing Company, and he’s lead investor in his local newspaper, the Half Moon Bay Review.

Those are a lot of responsibilities, but Mendonca is taking them on — his mission now is to make the Central Valley the most desirable place to live in California. He wants to raise the region’s stature in the eyes of companies on the coast, and solve some of its biggest problems surrounding housing, jobs, transit and wealth inequality.

“The Central Valley is the state equivalent of flyover states to people at the coast,” Mendonca recently told the Sacramento Business Journal. "[But] why don’t you locate your expansion where your people are coming from?”

Join us down in the basement of Ruhstaller’s taproom when we talk with Mendonca about his Central Valley roots and vision; what makes him the man for the job(s); how he plans to bring the jobs, the housing and the high-speed transit to California’s “flyover country;” and his advice for Gavin on keeping our status as the fifth-largest economy in the world. Bring your best business and economic questions to ask him.