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# Funds in waiting
- URL: https://www.redeyebr.com/funds-in-waiting/
- Published: 2026-10-27T00:45:23.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-27T00:45:23.000Z
- Description: The Capital Area Finance Authority, sitting on $24.4 million in unrestricted assets, wants a CEO who can steer it into economic development
- Author: Mukul Verma
- Tags: News

The Capital Area Finance Authority is down to its last few candidates to replace Mark Drennen, who retired earlier this year. Whoever gets the job will hold the keys to one of Baton Rouge's quietest, deepest pockets.

**Why it matters:** CAFA doesn't make much noise, but it has spent decades helping big things get built in this region, and it is sitting on about $24 million in unrestricted assets. The next CEO could help decide how some of the largest projects on the drawing board get paid for, including the LSU Arena and a downtown convention hotel.

**The details:**

- Drennen ran CAFA for a long stretch. Before that, he made his name as a government reformer while serving as head of the Division of Administration for two terms under Gov. Mike Foster.
- The top job could pay $500,000 a year, about what Drennen was making in salary and benefits when he left. That's enough to lure a serious finance professional to take over.
- Board chair Jay Gaudet tells *RedEye* that the search firm, SSA Consultants, has helped whittle the field to a handful of finalists. Final interviews come next, and the board expects to name a new CEO before the year is out.
- The new hire won't just keep the lights on. Gaudet says the job is to carry out CAFA's strategic plan, and at its heart is turning a financing outfit into one that does more economic development.

**Side note:** SSA Consultants' Christel Slaughter is also under contract to help run city-parish government. 

**The CAFA story:** Created as a trust in 1974, CAFA issues special obligation bonds that pay for housing, commercial and residential development, and public infrastructure in dozens of Louisiana parishes.

- At the end of 2024, CAFA had $24.4 million in its unrestricted fund, with $23.1 million of that in cash and investments.
- Gaudet says the agency has talked with the people behind the LSU Arena and with those leading the redevelopment of the Raising Cane's River Center. No commitments have been made to help finance either one.

**The bottom line:** CAFA is close to choosing its next leader, and that person may have a big hand in steering the agency into economic development.