
Rosie Rios
Former Treasurer of USA
Education
- graduated - Moreau Catholic High School
- MBA - Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley
Overview
Rosa Gumataotao Rios is an American academic. She served as the 43rd Treasurer of the United States and is a visiting scholar at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard
Treasurer of the United States :
In May 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Rios to be Treasurer of the United States and was confirmed by the Senate unanimously in July 2009. Rios was sworn in on August 20, 2009. Her signature was initially taken on her first day of the job (August 6th), and first appeared on US paper currency the day after Thanksgiving 2009. Rios was also a part of the team that implemented the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act with an emphasis on the Build America Bonds (BAB) program. Rios convened and trained state and local government officials and other stakeholders on how to access and utilize Build America Bonds to fund major infrastructure projects during the economic recovery. Rios was the Chief Executive Officer of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the United States Mint. She oversaw all currency and coin production activities. Rios was the first Treasurer to have her portfolio which also included the Chair of the Advanced Counterfeiting Deterrence Steering Committee and Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury in the areas of community development and public engagement. Her signature currently appeared on $1.2 trillion out of the $1.4 trillion in circulation worldwide when she stepped aside.
Her almost eight-year effort to redesign the nation’s currency included the first-ever nationwide public engagement process in the history of the federal government using a social media portal, roundtables and town halls. Rios began pushing for the change soon after she joined the Obama Administration in 2009. Her presentation to then-Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner went so well, she told CNN afterwards, that she left the room convinced the cause was sailing forward. Rios stepped down as Treasurer; her last day in office was July 11, 2016. Rios was the longest serving Senate-confirmed Treasury official beginning with her time on the Treasury/Federal Reserve Transition Team in November 2008 at the height of the financial crisis.
Early Life
Rosa Gumataotao Rios (born July 17, 1965) in Hayward, California. Rios' mother, an immigrant from Mexico, raised all nine children on her own and with the support of their church, sent all of her children to Catholic schools and off to college. All nine children worked at a young age. Rios worked beginning in her freshman year of high school at the office headquarters for the Alameda County Library System. Rios stated that she "had won the lottery with this job" as she had access to any book she ever wanted to read and that her experience and reading during this period led in part to her acceptance to Harvard University.
Rios graduated from Moreau Catholic High School in 1983, before attending Harvard, where she graduated with high honors. She received the Dean’s Award as the founder of Cultural Rhythms and is one of the few U.S. recipients of the Silver Medal Award from the Royal Society of Arts in Britain. Rios was hired by General Reinsurance Corporation as a Commercial Property Underwriter to analyze the risks of commercial investments. She later pursued her MBA at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.
Rios has two children, Joey and Brooke.
Career
- USA - Former Treasurer
Recognition
Upon her resignation in 2016, she received the Hamilton Award, the highest honor bestowed in the U.S. Department of the Treasury. In April 2015, a portrait of Rios was unveiled at Winthrop House at Harvard University, where she lived as an undergraduate—it was the first portrait of a Hispanic female to hang on a wall in Harvard College. Rios was inducted into the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame in 2019.