Speakers
Sarah Steelman, Missouri State Treasurer
Sarah Steelman is the first Republican woman in
Missouri
history to be elected to the office of State Treasurer. A working mother who
has dedicated her life to public service, she was administered the oath of
office by her father, John Hearne, to become
Missouri’s
44th State Treasurer on
January 10, 2005
.
Treasurer Steelman is responsible for the management of more
than $19 billion in
Missouri’s
annual revenue and she oversees the investment of more than $3 billion in
long- and short-term investments in the state’s portfolio. Steelman
is the first treasurer in
Missouri
history to win approval for a plan to make the state’s Treasury self-funded.
This approach freed up more than $1 million in General Revenue by adapting a
private-sector model that pays for the Treasurer’s Office out of interest the
office earns by managing state investments.
Treasurer Steelman serves as chairman of the state’s Higher
Education Savings Board, which administers the Missouri Saving for Tuition, or
MOST program she also serves as Chairman of the Missouri Housing Development
Commission, a member of the governing board of the Missouri State Employee
Retirement System and the Board of Fund Commissioners that oversees issuance of
debt instruments by the state.
In 1998 and 2002, Steelman was elected to serve as the Senator for the 16th
Senatorial District
. Steelman served as chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce and the
Environment and served on a number of other committees, including the
Joint Task Force on Terrorism, Bio-Terrorism and Homeland Security.
Previously, Steelman served as deputy director of the Missouri
Department of Natural Resources – Division of Geology and Land Survey. She
also worked as an economist for the Department of Revenue and as an adjunct
professor in economics at
Lincoln
University
. She served as an investment broker and as the director of the Big Brothers and
Big Sisters program in Rolla.
Steelman holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and a
Master of Arts degree in Economics from the
University
of
Missouri
–
Columbia
.
Thomas H. Hoening, President and CEO of the
Federal Reserve Bank
Gary Thayer, Chief Economist - AG Edwards
Dr. Jack Straus, Professor of Economics -
St. Louis University
