Tobias Read

Treasurer, State of Oregon

Elected Oregon’s 29th state treasurer in 2016, Tobias Read oversees the state’s diversified institutional portfolio, which totaled $118 billion at the end of December 2020. This portfolio consists of several funds and trust funds, including the Oregon Public Employee Retirement Fund, the State Accident Insurance Fund, the Oregon Common School Fund, the Oregon Short Term Fund, and smaller funds on behalf of agencies and universities.

A collaborative problem-solver who draws upon his management, political, and finance policy experience, Read was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives in 2006, where he served for a decade. He championed legislation to invest in public education, improve state financial management, finance critical infrastructure improvements, and help Oregonians save for a more secure future. Read was elected speaker pro tempore and earned the chairmanship of the House Committee on Transportation and Economic Development, and of the House Committee on Higher Education, Innovation, and Workforce Development. He also served on the House Revenue Committee in multiple legislative sessions and was a member of the Joint Committee on Ways and Means, the primary budget-writing body for the legislature.

While a house member, Read pushed to strengthen the state’s rainy-day fund, which was a key factor that helped the state earn a credit rating upgrade in 2011. He also helped lead the coalition that ultimately approved full-day kindergarten, underscoring that one of Oregon’s best possible investments is in its kids. Read led efforts to promote infrastructure projects using innovative public-private partnerships, and he was a chief sponsor of the Oregon Investment Act, which streamlined lottery investments in promising Oregon startups. In 2015, he was a chief sponsor of the Oregon Retirement Savings Plan, which became the first operating state-sponsored retirement program in 2017. Known as OregonSaves, the program enrolls Oregon workers who lack access to a retirement savings option through their employers, and it will allow hundreds of thousands more Oregonians to retire with dignity after a lifetime of work.

Read earned his bachelor’s degree from Willamette University and his MBA from the Michael G. Foster School of Business at the University of Washington. He has been a volunteer for Start Making a Reader Today (SMART), a youth sports coach, a member of the Willamette University Athletic Director’s Advisory Board, and a founding board member of Hoopla, Oregon’s largest three-on-three charity basketball tournament. He lives in Beaverton with his wife, Heidi Eggert, and their two children.