Rosie Rios
Featured Keynote Programs
A Tale of Two Financial Recoveries and Lessons Learned for the Future
With the advent of the financial crisis in 2008 and the role that the federal government played to put the U.S. economy on the road to recovery, how does that compare to today’s pandemic economy? As one of the original members of the U.S. Department of the Treasury/Federal Reserve Transition Team, Treasurer of the United States for the following seven years, and most recently, President Biden’s Treasury Transition Team, Treasurer Rios provides her perspectives on lessons learned from her tenure and its relevance to today’s economic recovery.
How to Inspire Your Organization to Do More with Less
A CEO Case Study of Saving $1 Billion While Increasing Production and Morale to Record Levels
Throughout her almost eight-year tenure as the CEO of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the United States Mint, Treasurer Rios used her business background to prepare her almost 4,000 employees to increase production as resources in the federal government continued to be limited. In doing so, not only was she able to save over $1 billion in the first five years, she also raised morale at both bureaus to unprecedented levels during record production while earning the respect of her colleagues and union partnerships to set a course for future success.
Inspirations and Aspirations
Using History to Influence the Present/Future of Women and Girls
As the first Senate-confirmed woman in the U.S. Department of the Treasury during the Obama administration and the only woman confirmed in Treasury in all of 2009, Treasurer Rios discusses her almost eight-year journey on how she evolved from her private world of finance to her public world of empowerment. From initiating the efforts to place a woman on the front of our nation’s currency for the first time in over a century to starting Treasury’s annual Women in Finance Symposiums leading to the cover of Time Magazine, Treasurer Rios’ goal is to make structural changes to how women and girls are valued in history and in what we see in our everyday lives from the classroom to the boardroom. As she continues her strategic partnerships to develop additional educational and public initiatives, hear how she successfully challenged and influenced her colleagues and eventually the nation - one male at a time. Her goal is to inspire Awareness and Action as we prepare for the suffrage centennial in 2020 and our nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026.
Our Future Generations of Leadership
What Millennials and Post-Millennials Can Learn from Us and What We Can Learn from Them
Following Treasurer Rios’ historic tenure during her almost eight years in the U.S. Department of the Treasury as Treasurer of the United States, she became a Visiting Scholar at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard. In 2016 she launched her first educational project, Teachers Righting History, followed by EMPOWERMENT2026 at Harvard. She learned very quickly how her initiatives were resonating with girls AND boys and began her journey of focusing her efforts on Millennials and Post-Millennials. Learn how her findings about these next generations will impact the social, economic, and political fabric of our country and what we can do to guide them to become successful, engaged, healthy and empowered future leaders.
The Future of Money
The train has left the station. It’s no longer a matter of if but when digital currencies will become a globally accepted and legitimate option. So what does that mean for traditional financial institutions, central banks and most importantly, consumers? Rios oversaw consumer payments policy and the Future of Money initiative as Treasurer of the United States from 2008 through 2016. As Chair of the Advanced Counterfeit Deterrence Steering Committee, she was also a key liaison with Federal Reserve and the Cash Product Office along with Secret Service on monetary security and financial crimes. She now serves on the board of Ripple and shares her perspectives on the framework that is needed to democratize money and access to capital.