Kathleen Connell

Kathleen Connell is an American businesswoman, journalist, entrepreneur, and academic. She was the California State Controller from 1995 until 2003. She was the first woman to serve in the position.

As controller she served as a trustee of CalPERS and CalSTRS, which together comprise the largest pool of retirement assets in the world, for eight years. Among the program innovations as State Controller: the postcard tax return (the first in the nation); the Unclaimed Property Program, a national online searchable database, returning $2 billion to US residents; the California Y2K Financial Network, a multi-finance industry task force, created to successfully execute the rollover of all State financial systems, and the Citizen's Report Card, honored with a prestigious national achievement award for seven years for transparency in government financial reporting.