Simpler to run for re-election as state treasurer
Republican Ken Simpler announced Nov. 2 that he will seek re-election as Delaware’s state treasurer. He was first elected in 2014.
“We have come a long way in my time at the Office of the State Treasurer,” said Simpler, during an event in Wilmington. “We've gotten out of the trap of day-to-day trouble-shooting and focused instead on large-scale, long-term problem solving. From the redesign of the $1 billion supplemental savings program for state employees and teachers to the re-architecting of the state's $1.6 billion investment portfolio, our efforts are producing better outcomes at lower cost over the long haul. That's good finance."
Simpler, a Rehoboth native who now lives in Newark, said Delaware can be the best state in the nation in managing finances and creating value.
“The pieces are in place for a powerful series of reforms that would put Delaware on a sound fiscal footing for the next generation and create incentives for us to measure performance and continuously get better,” he said. “I will be advocating strongly for those reforms.”
Simpler has an MBA from the University of Chicago and undergraduate degree from Princeton University. He previously held the position of managing director at Citadel LLC, a $25 billion global investment fund. At Citadel, he oversaw a billion dollar portfolio, managed personnel in Chicago, San Francisco, New York/Greenwich, London and Tokyo, and served on the firm’s worldwide investment committee.
Simpler is an owner of Delaware-based Seaboard Hotels, which develops and manages hotel and retail properties in Rehoboth Beach, Dewey Beach, Nags Head, N.C., and Cocoa Beach, Fla.
Prior to entering public office, Simpler served on the board of directors of Draper Holdings, the parent company of WBOC and Fox 21, and the finance committee of Beebe Healthcare.
Chris Flood has been working for the Cape Gazette since early 2014. He currently covers Rehoboth Beach and Henlopen Acres, but has also covered Dewey Beach and the state government. He covers environmental stories, business stories, random stories on subjects he finds interesting and has a column called ‘Choppin’ Wood’ that runs every other week. Additionally, Chris moonlights as the company’s circulation manager, which primarily means fixing boxes during daylight hours that are jammed with coins, but sometimes means delivering papers in the middle of the night. He’s a graduate of the University of Maine and the Landing School of Boat Building & Design.
