NGA’s Scheppach Set to Step Down After 27 Years

WASHINGTON — Raymond Scheppach, longtime executive director of the National Governors Association, announced Thursday that he will leave the group early next year to become a professor of public policy at the University of Virginia’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and senior fellow for economic policy at its Miller Center of Public Affairs.

The NGA executive committee hired Korn/Ferry International to conduct a national search for Scheppach’s replacement.

Scheppach became executive director at NGA in 1983. He previously spent seven years at the Congressional Budget Office, working as its deputy director for two of those years. He also was vice president and senior consultant for economic studies at Jack Faucett Associates and an economist at the Standard Oil Co. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Maine and a master’s degree and doctorate in economics from the University of Connecticut.

Scheppach has “clearly understood the importance of finance and the operations of government, and how federal unfunded mandates were unduly affecting the spending behavior of state and local governments,” said Jeffrey Esser, executive director and chief executive officer of the Government Finance Officers Association. Esser added that he has worked with Scheppach for the entirety of Scheppach’s tenure at NGA.

Over nearly three decades, Scheppach has worked with more than 300 governors, several of whom have gone on to serve in the White House or U.S. Senate, the NGA said in a press release announcing his departure.

He also played a key role in developing analyses of state fiscal conditions, including reports issued jointly with the National Association of State Budget Officers. The most recent of those reports was issued this week.

These projects helped shape the dialogue around state policies because they “got way beyond some of the headline-grabbing stories that were not necessarily based on fact,” Esser said.

“It’s really going to be a difficult thing not to have Ray around,” said Scott Pattison, NASBO’s executive director. “It was particularly helpful having someone with a unique understanding of financial and budget issues” and how they impact debt issuance.

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