Josh Mandel

08 May Josh Mandel

Josh Mandel served as the 48th Treasurer of the State of Ohio and at the time was the youngest State Treasurer in America. He was elected in 2010 and re-elected in 2014 – winning both elections by double-digits. Josh is a Marine Corps veteran who served two tours in Iraq and previously served two terms in the Ohio House of Representatives. He was first elected State Representative in 2006, knocking on 19,679 doors and wearing out three pairs of shoes. In 2008 he was re-elected to a second term in the state legislature, representing a district with a 2:1 Democrat to Republican voter ratio.

As State Treasurer, Josh helped take Ohio’s financial ranking from 43rd up to 7th in the nation and helped move Ohio from an $8 billion deficit to a $1 billion surplus. He earned a “AAA” rating on the multi-billion dollar local government investment fund his office manages, even as 14 other state and local investment funds were downgraded. In 2014, he was the only State Treasurer in America to be recognized with the Association of Government Accountants award for “Excellence in Financial Management,” and was given the American Society for Public Administration’s “Public Integrity Award” for “outstanding contributions to responsible and ethical conduct in public service.”

Treasurer Mandel has also been a national leader in the cause of increasing government transparency and empowering taxpayers to hold public officials accountable. Near the onset of his first term, Josh posted state employee and teacher salaries online for the first time in Ohio government history. More recently, he launched OhioCheckbook.com, posting Ohio’s checkbook online for the first time in Ohio history. Josh’s leadership in this area helped increase Ohio’s transparency ranking from 46th to 1st in the nation in the U.S. Public Interest Research Group’s ranking of the fifty states.

During his two terms in the state legislature, Treasurer Mandel served as the Ranking Member of the Financial Institutions, Real Estate and Securities Committee, handling issues concerning banks, investment firms and pension funds. He also participated in the reconstruction of investment oversight for the multibillion-dollar Bureau of Workers’ Compensation investment fund. Due to his leadership on these and other issues, Treasurer Mandel was named legislative “Rookie of the Year” by Columbus Monthly Magazine and “Watchdog of the Treasury” by the United Conservatives of Ohio. Josh’s previous elected experience includes service as a Lyndhurst City Councilman, where he led the fight for the first municipal property tax rollback in city history.

Inspired by a strong sense of duty to country, Josh enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves in 2000, where he graduated first in his class from Marine Corps Boot Camp and first in his class from Marine Corps Intelligence School. His Marine Corps career spanned eight years, including two tours in Anbar Province, Iraq. During both tours he was awarded the Navy & Marine Corps Achievement Medal for “superior performance of his duties.” He holds a Bachelor Degree from The Ohio State University and a Law Degree from Case Western Reserve University. Josh and his wife Ilana reside in the Cleveland area with their children Rosie and Judah.