Pam Warren, Secretary of Administration

Pam Warren, Oklahoma's secretary of administration, has shown the bond market that she knows her way up some pretty steep ladders.

Having begun as a state government intern, Warren now oversees more than 30 different state boards and is director of the Department of Central Services. In that capacity, she serves on the board of the Oklahoma Capital Improvement Authority, one of the state's largest issuers.

Last year the agency sold more than $632 million of debt as a conduit issuer for projects throughout the state. Later this spring the authority plans a $155 million issue to finance the second part of a $320 million bond plan that state lawmakers approved in 1997. Bonds from the first part, issued in 1998, went to projects in and around Oklahoma City; the upcoming issue will be spent on the Tulsa area.

Warren's 300-member DCS team works to provide general services to other state agencies. The department handles about $600 million in purchases of goods and services each year, including handicapped-vendor programs, two million square feet of state office space, the state's motor pool, the state's self-insurance risk-management program, and contract awards for state construction projects.

In that capacity, Warren also superintends the state's central printing services, interagency mail handling, distribution of surplus federal property, asbestos abatement in state office and school buildings, and exploration of alternative fuels and recycling methods.

Before her 1997 appointment to Gov. Frank Keating's cabinet, Warren served as assistant secretary of state for secretaries of state Glo Henley and Tom Cole, and worked for the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission.