Lieutenant Governor Mead Treadwell

Mead Treadwell was elected as Alaska’s Lieutenant Governor in November, 2010.

Lt. Governor Treadwell places a priority in fulfilling his constitutional duties, supporting Alaska’s governor and being accessible to Alaskans. He is committed to strengthening Alaska’s economy by filling the Trans Alaska Pipeline, helping get a gas pipeline built, bringing affordable energy to Alaskans and standing up to the federal government to ensure access to our natural resources.

Mead Treadwell brings a record of private and public sector success to the job of Lieutenant Governor. He is recognized as one of the world’s Arctic policy experts.

Treadwell was appointed to the United States Arctic Research Commission by President George W. Bush in 2001 and designated by the President as the Commission’s chair in 2006. Under his leadership, a new United States Arctic Policy was developed and adopted by President Bush and is now being implemented by the current administration.

Treadwell resigned from the Commission in June, 2010 after he filed to run for Lieutenant Governor.

Treadwell also recently resigned as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Venture Ad Astra, an Anchorage company, which invests in and develops new geospatial and imaging technologies. He helped launch a series of technology, manufacturing and service companies, two of which - Digimarc and Emberclear - trade on public stock exchanges.

Mead Treadwell first came Alaska as a teenager in 1974 and worked as a volunteer intern in Wally Hickel’s office. It was the beginning of a friendship that lasted for thirty-eight years.

After graduating from Yale, Treadwell moved to Alaska in 1978 and worked as lead political reporter for the ANCHORAGE TIMES. In 1980, he was part of a team of writers which won the Blethen Award, a top prize for investigative reporting in the Pacific Northwest.

In 1982, after completing his MBA at the Harvard Business School, Treadwell joined former Governor Hickel and former Governor Bill Egan as founders of the Yukon Pacific Corporation which started the all Alaska gas pipeline project.

During the Exxon Valdez oil spill crisis, Mead Treadwell went to Cordova and served as the city’s director of spill response. He worked with Cordova citizens and Alaska's congressional delegation to launch the Prince William Sound Science Center, home of the Prince William Sound Oil Spill Recovery Institute. He also worked with Southcental coastal communities, Congress, and the oil industry to create the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens Advisory Committee.

When Wally Hickel was elected to his second term as Alaska’s Governor, he appointed Mead Treadwell to serve as Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation. Treadwell helped write Alaska’s new environmental protection regulations and established the environmental crime unit for the state. He represented Alaska on U.S. delegations which established the eight nation Arctic Council, and supported Governor Hickel's establishment of the Northern Forum.

Over the years, Mead Treadwell has held leadership positions in a wide range of policy, professional, public service, governmental and international organizations.

He served as a member of the board of the Alaska Science and Technology Foundation from 1994 to 1999, and helped establish the Kodiak Launch Complex.

Treadwell was elected a Fellow National of the Explorers Club in 2002 and chairs the North Pacific Alaska Chapter of the Club. He is past president of the Alaska World Affairs Council, the Japan America Society of Alaska, and the Visual Arts Center of Alaska. As a founder of the Alaska State Chamber of Commerce Siberian Gateway Project, he worked to open the Alaska-Russia border in 1988. He has served as a board member of Commonwealth North, the Great Alaska Council of the Boy Scouts, the Healthy Alaska Natives Foundation and the Alaska-Siberia Research Center.

Mead Treadwell is Senior Fellow of the Institute of the North, an endowed public policy research program founded by Wally Hickel to focus on Alaska and Arctic natural resource issues, governance of public assets, geography, and national security. His efforts there helped establish missile defense in Alaska and strengthened our alliance in this area with Japan.

With his late wife Carol, he has three children. In her memory, he served as president of the Millennium Society, an international charity which raises scholarship funds and has established a series of scholarships in science education for young people in Alaska.

Financial Disclosure Statements

Bio and Photo from the State of Alaska web site.