Fiona Ma is California’s 34th State Treasurer. She was elected on November 6, 2018 with more votes than any other candidate for treasurer in the state's history. She is the first woman of color and the first woman Certified Public Accountant (CPA) elected to the position.
California is the world’s fifth-largest economy and Treasurer Ma is a proven leader as the state’s primary banker. As Treasurer, her office worked quickly to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, offering resources to small businesses and expanding access to healthcare facilities. She grew and revamped the state’s affordable housing and homeless housing programs, funded clean energy projects to create new jobs, and dramatically increased Californians’ ability to save for college, retirement, live with a disability and achieve a better quality of life. At the same time, she bolstered support for K-12 and higher education.
Her office processes more than $2 trillion in payments within a typical year and provides transparency and oversight for an investment portfolio of more than $90 billion, approximately $20 billion of which are local government funds. She also is responsible for $85 billion in outstanding general obligation and lease revenue bonds of the state.
Prior to being elected Treasurer, she was an elected member of the California Board of Equalization from 2014 - 2018 and worked to protect the rights of taxpayers while ensuring California collected its fair share of tax revenues. Her district covered 23 counties and included approximately 9.5 million people. Upon being selected Chairperson of the Board of Equalization in 2016, she ordered three external audits of the agency and helped lead the biggest reforms for accountability and efficiency in that agency’s history.
Treasurer Ma was a member of the State Assembly from 2006-2012, serving as Speaker pro Tempore from 2010 to 2012. She built a reputation as a problem-solving public servant, adept at building unlikely coalitions to overcome California's most complex problems. Prior to serving as Speaker pro Tempore, she was Assembly Majority Whip and worked across the aisle during a state budget crisis to pass groundbreaking legislation that protected public education and the environment while also expanding access to health care.
As an Assembly Member, she authored 60 bills that were signed into law by two different governors – most were first-in-the-nation and required no taxpayer money. Her successful legislation to ban toxic chemicals in baby products, known as phthalates, became a model for federal legislation that was authored by U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein in 2008. She chaired the Assembly Select Committee on Domestic Violence and spearheaded legislation that strengthened laws protecting victims of domestic violence, consumers and working families; prevented the spread of Hepatitis B; increased access to quality healthcare; and strengthened equal rights for all Californians.
Her last two pieces of legislation allowed women who suffered domestic abuse and were convicted of life without parole the ability to have their cases reheard utilizing Battered Women’s Syndrome as a defense for the first time. Women are still being released from prison today who were convicted under outdated laws that refused to acknowledge the role of pervasive domestic abuse in family violence.
From 2002-2006, she served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and championed a human rights campaign to end human trafficking in massage parlors and close prostitution rings. She led an effort to create the city's Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program to empower small businesses to more easily participate in public works projects.
Treasurer Ma has been a licensed CPA in California since 1992 and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from the Rochester Institute of Technology (NY), a Master’s Degree in Taxation from Golden Gate University (SF), and an MBA from Pepperdine University.
She is nationally recognized as a leader on public finance, serving as Chair of the National Association of State Treasurers ABLE Committee and Member of the Legislative Committee. She was appointed to the Vatican’s Council on Inclusive Capitalism in 2020 and received Bond Buyer Magazine’s 2021 Freda Johnson Award for Trailblazing Women in Public Finance. She is an Aspen Rodel Fellow and a Hunt- Kean Leadership Fellow, is a Member of the California Society of Certified Public Accountants, is President of Women in California Politics, serves on the Board of California Women Lead, is an Honorary Chair and Spokesperson for the San Francisco Hepatitis B Free Campaign, and is a member of the Screen Actors Guild. She is married to Jason Hodge, a full-time firefighter and Oxnard Harbor Commissioner. They are the proud parents of two adopted rescues, Nika and Henry.
