Brian Hoelscher

Brian Hoelscher is a licensed professional engineer (P.E.) who built his entire career at the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis and joined MSD in May 1995 as Manager of Construction. Over the following decades he rose through the organization, serving in the Construction Management Department (1995–2000), the Program Management Division of the Engineering Department (2000–2003), and then as Director of Engineering (2003–2013), where he managed a department of roughly 230 staff and oversaw the delivery of more than $1.3 billion in capital projects.

On March 27, 2013, MSD's Board of Trustees named Hoelscher Executive Director, the agency's top staff position. As Director of Engineering he had been an integral member of MSD's negotiating team for the landmark federal Consent Decree with the U.S. EPA, finalized in 2012 — a $4.7 billion, 23-year capital program (often cited as the largest public-works initiative in St. Louis history) to reduce sewer overflows and bring the district into Clean Water Act compliance.

As Executive Director & CEO from 2013 to 2024, Hoelscher led the district's roughly 1,000-employee operation, its rate-setting process, and the execution of the EPA Consent Decree program (branded "Project Clear"). Under his leadership MSD eliminated an estimated 85% of its overflow points within about a decade. He retired effective June 30, 2024, after 28–29 years at MSD and 11 years as Executive Director. He was succeeded on July 1, 2024 by Bret Berthold, MSD's former Director of Operations, who was selected after a national search led by GovHR.

Hoelscher is professionally active in the field as a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Water Environment Federation, the Missouri Water Environment Association, and the Engineers Club of St. Louis (a former director of the latter).

• Not applicable. Hoelscher is a public utility executive, not an investor; there is no angel/venture investment thesis on the public record.
• His professional "thesis," insofar as one exists, has been infrastructure stewardship and fiscal responsibility in public utilities — e.g., his stated focus on completing "vital improvements while upholding our commitment to be good stewards of public funds" (EPA WIFIA announcement, Oct. 2023).
• If approached as a domain expert rather than a capital source, his relevance is to water/wastewater infrastructure, large public capital programs, municipal finance (revenue bonds, WIFIA loans), and regulatory/EPA Consent Decree compliance.