Governor Perdue inaugural parade (3189497348)

Janet Cowell (born July 19, 1968) is the former

North Carolina State Treasurer The North Carolina State Treasurer is a statewide elected office in the U.S. state of North Carolina responsible for overseeing the financial operations of state government. The current state treasurer is Dale Folwell. The office of state treasur ...

, serving from 2009 to 2017, and is the first woman to hold that position in North Carolina. She was previously a two-term member of the

Raleigh City Council Raleigh City Council is the governing body for the city of Raleigh, the state capital of North Carolina. Raleigh is governed by council-manager government. It is composed of eight members, including the Mayor of Raleigh. Five of the members ar ...

and a two-term Democratic member of the

North Carolina Senate The North Carolina Senate is the upper chamber of the North Carolina General Assembly, which along with the North Carolina House of Representatives—the lower chamber—comprises the state legislature of North Carolina. The term of office for e ...

, representing

Wake County Wake County is located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. In the 2020 census, its population was 1,129,410, making it North Carolina's most-populous county. From July 2005 to July 2006, Wake County was the 9th-fastest growing county in the U ...

Early life and education

Cowell was born in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

. She graduated from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

(BA), Penn's

Wharton School of Business The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in ...

(

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

), and the

Lauder Institute The Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management & International Studies (The Lauder Institute) offers a joint degree program at the University of Pennsylvania, combining an MA in international studies from the School of Arts & Sciences with an MBA ...

(Master's in International Studies).

Career

Cowell previously worked as an analyst with HSBC and

Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1847. Before filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, a ...

, coming to

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the List of North Carolina county seats, seat of Wake County, North Carolina, Wake County in the United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most ...

in 1997. While in Raleigh she was also a consultant with SJF Ventures as well as Sibson & Co. and, in 2000, went to work for the Common Sense Foundation.

Political career

In 2001 Cowell decided to run for Raleigh City Council. She was elected to one of the At-large seats along with

Neal Hunt Neal K. Hunt (born September 17, 1942) is an American real estate businessman and politician who served as a Republican member of the North Carolina General Assembly representing constituents in Wake County in the fifteenth district of the Nor ...

. She was re-elected with Hunt to the At-large seats in 2003. In 2004, Cowell ran for the District 16 State Senate seat held by the retiring

Eric Miller Reeves Eric Miller Reeves (born October 18, 1963) is an attorney and a North Carolina state Senator. Early life and education Reeves graduated from St. Mark's School of Texas in 1982 where he was a member of the wrestling team and won the Texas Sta ...

. Cowell won the Democratic party primary with 49% of the vote over Jack Nichols, Carter Worthy and Mike Shea. She went on to face

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

nominee Mark Bradrick, an insurance appraiser and

Desert Storm The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

veteran, and

Libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...

Jason Mara in the general election. Cowell won the seat with 59% to 38% for Bradrick and 3% for Mara. She was completely unopposed in her 2006 re-election campaign.

As State Treasurer

Cowell announced that she would seek the Democratic nomination for North Carolina State Treasurer in July 2007. She faced Michael Weisel, a Raleigh attorney, and David Young, a

Buncombe County Buncombe County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is classified within Western North Carolina. The 2020 census reported the population was 269,452. Its county seat is Asheville. Buncombe County is part of the Ashevill ...

Commissioner, in the primary election, winning the nomination with 46.43% of the vote. In the 2008 general election, Cowell defeated the Republican nominee, businessman and former State House member Bill Daughtridge, 53.62% to 46.38%. She was sworn-in on January 10, 2009. She was re-elected in 2012 over Republican Steve Royal, 53.83% to 46.17%. On October 13, 2015, Cowell announced that she would not seek reelection or election to any other office in 2016.

Awards and honors

In 2012, Cowell was recognized as a "rising state and local leader" by The NewDEAL. In July 2013, Cowell was ranked #21 globally on the

Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute The Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute or SWF Institute, or SWFI, is a global corporation analyzing public asset owners such as sovereign wealth funds and other long-term governmental investors. Initially, the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute focus ...

's Public Investor 100.http://www.swfinstitute.org/public-investor-100/janet-cowell/ Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute

Electoral history

References

External links

* * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Cowell, Janet 1968 births 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians Living people Democratic Party North Carolina state senators Politicians from Memphis, Tennessee Raleigh City Council members State treasurers of North Carolina Women state legislators in North Carolina Women city councillors in North Carolina