The impending retirement of Maryland State Treasurer Nancy Kopp, who has held the role for nearly twenty years, will leave a void in the public finance community that has benefited greatly from her leadership.
“[Nancy’s] passion for and dedication to public service is well reflected in her exemplary career,” said Manju Ganeriwala, Virginia State Treasurer.
Ganeriwala said Kopp is not only a respected and talented colleague, but also a “dear friend."
" I have personally benefited from her sincere generosity with her time and counsel, especially during my early years as state treasurer in Virginia,” Ganeriwala said.
Treasurer Kopp, who was first elected in 2002, will vacate the role at the end of this year. She announced her intention to resign in a letter to members of the Maryland General Assembly, according to
“Serving as Maryland’s Treasurer has been a great privilege, as well as a terrific challenge,” Kopp said in a statement.
Kopp is only the second woman to serve as Maryland’s state treasurer--a position she was re-elected to five times, for full 4-year terms. Before being elected to state treasurer, Kopp was a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, where she represented Bethesda-- an urban community in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area.
While a delegate, Kopp chaired key committees including joint committees on spending affordability, and budget and audit, as well as subcommittees on education and economic development, pensions, and capital budget.
According to her biography for the Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame, into which Kopp was inducted in 2012, Kopp was named most effective woman legislator and one of the ten most effective members of the Maryland House of Delegates during her legislative tenure.
Richard Eckstrom, president of the National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers and Treasurers, said Kopp’s 27 years of service in the House of Delegates was a unique asset.
“[Nancy] contributed in a number of ways to financial policy when she served in the general assembly and I think that she brought the benefit of [that] experience to the executive branch when she became state treasurer,” Eckstrom explained.
Eckstrom, who is a former South Carolina state treasurer and currently serves as South Carolina’s comptroller general, first met Kopp in 2002. They entered office around the same time, after Eckstrom left an international accounting firm because he wanted to make a difference in public service.
“I learned through the years that some get into public service because they want to hold the position,” Eckstrom said. But “I think that Nancy felt that she could make a difference as well.”
One of the ways that Kopp made a difference was in initiating “the first modern Maryland bond refunding program,” which the state treasurer’s office says resulted in more than $461 million in direct savings to taxpayers over 20 years.
Eckstrom noted that Maryland is one of the few states in the country that has consistently maintained its triple-A credit rating from the major bond rating agencies, even through the rough years following the Great Recession.
That “is a tribute to any of the financial management teams of which Nancy was a remarkable part,” Eckstrom says, adding, “The work that she’s done to preserve her state’s AAA bond rating wins her great accolades.”
As Treasurer, Kopp chairs committees on capital debt affordability and the commission on state debt. She also serves as chair of the board of trustees of the Maryland State Retirement and Pension Systems and the Maryland 529 College Savings Board.
Those responsibilities are in addition to service on numerous other boards, commissions and councils with subject matter areas ranging from retirement savings and education to procurement, climate change and public works.
Kopp has served on the executive committee of the National Conference of State Legislatures and was appointed by President Clinton to the National Assessment Governing Board. In 2013, she was appointed to the Board of the Financial Accounting Foundation, which oversees financial accounting standards including generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP.
Among other prominent roles, Kopp served as vice-chair of the National Commission on State and Local Budget and Finance Procedures, and is a past president of NASACT. She is also a recipient of the National Association of State Treasurers’ Jesse Unruh Award for outstanding service to her profession and her state.
“[NAST] has been honored to have Nancy Kopp as an esteemed member for almost 20 years,” Shaun Snyder, NAST executive director said in a statement. “The value of her experience and expertise will be greatly missed in the association.”
Charles “Chuck” Samuels, a regulatory attorney with Mintz, has worked with Kopp for many years in her capacity as one of the leading representatives of NAST and NASACT.
“She has been a progressive and effective voice of state leaders in public finance in Washington, [D.C.],” Samuels said. “In particular, I have seen her work with the MSRB in which she has been a calm, clear and experienced voice for reasonable but progressive regulation,” he added.
R. Kinney Poynter, executive director of NASACT, said in a statement, that “Nancy sets a high standard of excellence for fiscal managers at all levels. She has represented our members and their varied interests with deep knowledge, foresight, leadership and a strong sense of responsibility to her colleagues and to the citizens on whose behalf she serves.”
Eckstrom said Kopp always pursues “good government” with “the best level of financial management,” and that she always shows concern for accountability, affordability, and sustainability without being political.
“With Nancy, it’s not whether it's blue or red, it’s all financial,” Eckstrom said. “I really admire her ability to keep the focus in a highly partisan environment. Her retirement creates a really large void to fill.”
A longtime resident of Washington, D.C., Samuels has similarly seen Kopp’s leadership in the region on critical issues such as transportation. “She has been a magnificent public servant...and will be sorely missed,” he said.
Treasurer Ganeriwala agreed and pointed out that Kopp’s impact has gone "far beyond the borders of her state. She has been a particularly strong and effective advocate for issues important to state treasurers. The breadth of her experience, the depth of her knowledge, and her forthrightness made her stand out as a forceful voice when testifying before Congress or meeting with federal policy makers on behalf of [NAST],” Ganeriwala explained.
“Beyond her specific advice on a matter, I have always admired Nancy’s focus and the lens she uses for making decisions – how will this improve the lives of citizens we serve?” Ganeriwala said.
Megan Schutz, who works for Kopp in the Office for the State Treasurer, echoed the notion that Kopp views the work through a lens focused on citizens.
“When she hired me, she said that all the dollars and cents that we see, in the bond sales, in the Bureau of Revenue Estimates meetings, in the Capital Debt Affordability Committee, the capital budget, etc. etc., it’s all for real, tangible projects, and people,” Schutz explained.
“I always remember that, because I did not come from a finance or economics background, and it all certainly becomes more real and interesting when you connect what those dollars and cents and charts and budgets mean [for people],” Schutz said.
Kopp, who holds a masters degree in government from the University of Chicago, is also a graduate of Wellesley College. In 2015, she received their Alumnae Achievement Award, which according to the Maryland State Treasurer’s release, is “the highest honor given to alumnae for excellence and distinction in their fields of endeavor.”
After retiring, Kopp reportedly plans to travel and spend more time with her husband, children, and grandchildren.
“I have cherished the opportunity to serve and believe that, working together, we have made a real contribution to the benefit of our state and fellow citizens,” Kopp said in a statement. “We have invested in our collective future, in public education, great universities, a sound human and physical infrastructure and in the many other ways in which we work to assure strong communities and decent lives for all Marylanders.”
Ganeriwala added, “With [Nancy’s] retirement, we will lose a giant, figuratively, among us. I stand in gratitude for everything she has done personally for me and for our profession."
The process for appointing a committee to review candidates for the Maryland State Treasurer opening will begin in the coming weeks, in accordance with Maryland state law.
