Betty Ireland

Photograph of Betty Ireland, taken in Charleston, West Virginia.

Betty Ireland (born 1946, in Charleston, W. Va.) is the current Secretary of State of West Virginia. Ireland was elected to the office in November 2004, making history as the first woman elected to the executive branch of the government of the State of West Virginia. She was also the first Republican elected to that position since 1972. Ireland recently announced that she will not seek a second term in 2008.[1]

Career

Early in her career, Ireland spent several years teaching in the West Virginia public school system. Eventually, she entered the business sector, when Ireland took a job as an administrative assistant with Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance. In 1987, she earned the designation of Certified Pension Consultant from the American Society of Pension Actuaries, the first person ever in the State of West Virginia to do so. Ireland was an instructor for the "Mass Mutual Pension School", and the "Pension and Profit Sharing Institute" at Purdue University. For nearly six years (from 1977 to 1983), she was the owner of Retirement Systems & Services, a pension administration and consulting firm in Charleston. From 1983 to 1989, she was vice president and head of the pension division in the Trust Department of the Charleston National Bank of Commerce. Ireland moved to Jackson Kelly PLLC as a pension consultant and manager of employee benefits in early 1989. From Jackson Kelly, Ireland moved to the position of Executive Director of the West Virginia Consolidated Public Retirement Board in August 1998, and returned to Jackson Kelly in 2002 to head its ancillary business endeavors as President and Chief Executive Officer of Jackson Kelly Solutions LLC. While in trust banking, she handled administrative and investment matters for more than a hundred retirement plans. In her position as head of Jackson Kelly's Employee Benefit Group, she supervised pension administrators and clerks, and personally focused on the administrative needs of nearly four hundred retirement plans, as well as the marketing strategy of the department. In her role of Executive Director of West Virginia's Retirement System, she oversaw the administration of the retirement matters for over 120,000 plan members, and also worked closely with the State Administration and Legislature on pension matters.

Family

Ireland has four children, Chuck, Andy, Alex, and Janie, with her husband, Sam Haddad.

Election

In 2004, Ireland made headlines by upsetting octogenarian political legend, Ken Hechler, 52% to 48%, in a general election race, as Hechler attempted to return the Secretary of State's office (which he had previously held for a total of sixteen years).

External links

• Official website of the West Virginia Secretary of State
• Official website of the State of West Virginia