Ex-state treasurer to head N.Y. firm

Monday, Jan. 11, 1999 | 11:01 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Former state Treasurer Bob Seale has been named president and chief executive officer of a New York firm that handles $2 billion a year of investments by state and local governments, hospitals, utilities and nonprofit agencies.

Seale, who retired after eight years in office, has started work at Gabelli Fixed Income LLC. He will be based in Rye, N.Y., but the post will require extensive traveling and he will maintain his home in Reno.

His job will be to manage the fund and develop new business. The company invests in fixed-income investments such as Treasury notes, Fannie Maes and commercial debt. The duties are similar to those performed by Seale in the treasurer's office.

"There is $1 trillion being managed by state and local governments, so there is plenty of opportunities," Seale said. When he headed the treasurer's office, two Atlanta firms were hired to handle part of the state's investment where the state staff was not well versed.

The Gabelli firm is a wholly owned subsidiary of Gabelli Asset Management Co., which has been in business about 15 years. The company is headed by Mario Gabelli, who announced the appointment today (Monday). He said Seale "has an extremely impressive background in state and municipal finance. On his watch, the state of Nevada's resources grew from $800 million to over $2.1 billion.

"He (Seale) is an expert in the fixed income product sector and is very familiar with the Wall Street scene," Gabelli said.

Seale said the minimum account handled by his firm is about $10 million.

During Seale's tenure as treasurer, the local government investment pool grew from $100 million to $400 million. Under that program, local governments funneled money into Seale's office to invest to gain a higher rate than they could realize locally.

The municipal bond bank, in which local governments issue bonds through the treasurer's office at a reduced interest rate, increased from $600 million to $2 billion. Seale and Gov. Bob Miller also developed the College Tuition Savings plan, allowing parents to save now for the education of their children in the future.

The parent Gabelli company has about 185 employees, and Seale will supervise about 10, mostly professionals in the fixed-income branch.

Before running for public office, Seale was managing partner of Pangborn & Company, a Reno and Las Vegas-based CPA firm.