Shawn T. Wooden

Shawn T. Wooden was sworn in as Connecticut’s state treasurer on January 9, 2019, following his successful 21-year career as an investment attorney and public service as president of the Hartford City Council. He is currently president of the National Association of State Treasurers, the bipartisan organization of state treasurers and public finance officials across the United States, and the nation’s foremost authority on responsible state treasury programs and related financial practices, policies, and education. Wooden is the sole trustee of the $47 billion Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds, administers a $26 billion debt management program, and manages over $259 billion in annual cash transactions. He has a seat on 25 quasi-governmental authorities, boards, and commissions related to housing, finance, student loans, air and water sports, venture capital, the lottery, private sector retirement security, and other key policy areas.

Born and raised in Hartford, Wooden participated in a desegregation busing program to attend public school. Graduating with honors, he earned a four-year academic scholarship to Trinity College. He later attended New York University School of Law before moving back to his hometown to begin his legal career at Day Pitney. Wooden has been a fierce advocate for closing the wealth gap, improving financial literacy, reducing gun violence, protecting workers, and advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the financial services industry.

In September 2020, moved by the murder of George Floyd and the reaction to his widely published op-ed calling on corporate America to get off the sidelines, Wooden launched the Corporate Call to Action: Coalition for Equity & Opportunity (CCA) in partnership with the Ford Foundation. The coalition now consists of 18 of the leading financial institutions in the United States, representing more than 725,000 employees and $26 trillion in assets under management. The mission of the CCA is to address racial economic inequality within the financial services industry as well as in communities of color that have historically been underbanked, underrecognized, and underfunded. During the 2021 legislative session, Wooden proposed and championed the passage of a first-in-the-nation CT Baby Bonds law. CT Baby Bonds is an anti-generational poverty, racial equity, and economic growth program inspired by Professor Darrick Hamilton of the New School’s Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy.

Wooden is the only Black elected state treasurer in the country and the only Black elected official serving statewide in New England.