Rebecca Paul (born Feb 1949 as Rebecca Sue Graham) is currently the President and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of the

Tennessee Lottery The Tennessee Lottery is run by the Tennessee Education Lottery Corporation (TELC), which was created on June 11, 2003, by the Tennessee General Assembly. TELC derives its legal authority from the ''Tennessee Education Lottery Implementation Law'', ...

. Prior to assuming her current position in 2003, Paul gained national fame within the

lottery A lottery (or lotto) is a form of gambling that involves the drawing of numbers at random for a prize. Some governments outlaw lotteries, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find som ...

community for operating lotteries in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, and

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. In 1986 Florida voters elected Republican

Bob Martinez Robert Martinez (born December 25, 1934) is an American retired politician who served as the 40th governor of Florida from 1987 to 1991. A member of the Republican Party, Martinez was the first Hispanic American governor since colonial Flori ...

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

, and at the same time, voted in favor of establishing a state lottery to aid education. The new governor recruited Paul as the state's first Lottery Secretary, due largely to her reputation for having turned the Illinois lottery from a moribund operation into one of the most successful lotteries in the United States. Paul was then brought to Georgia for the same purpose in 1993, after Georgia voted to start up a lottery as well. Paul was already the highest paid lottery official in the United States, prior to being recruited to Tennessee with an even larger compensation package. She is widely regarded as the pre-eminent lottery official in the United States, being described by one state legislator as the "Michael Jordan" of lotteries. In 2022 she was elected president of the World Lottery Association.

Pre-lottery years and personal life

Paul, a native of Indianapolis, Indiana, is an alumna of

Butler University Butler University is a private university in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1855 and named after founder Ovid Butler, the university has over 60 major academic fields of study within six colleges in the arts, business, communic ...

, where she earned a BS degree (1970) and an MS degree (1975) from the College of Education. Paul was selected as

Miss Indiana The Miss Indiana competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Indiana in the Miss America Pageant. Kalyn Melham of Muncie was crowned Miss Indiana 2024 on June 29, 2024, at STAR Bank Performing Arts Center in Z ...

1972, and was the fourth runner-up in the 1973

Miss America Miss America is an annual competition that is open to women from the United States between the ages of 18 and 28. Originating in 1921 as a "bathing beauty revue", the contest is judged on competition segments with scoring percentages: ''Priva ...

Pageant, losing to Terry Anne Meeuwsen (best known as co-host of ''

The 700 Club ''The 700 Club'' is the flagship television program of the Christian Broadcasting Network, airing each weekday in syndication in the United States and available worldwide on CBN.com. The news magazine program features live guests, daily news, p ...

''). After her pageant days, Paul was hired as a "weather girl" at a station in

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

. She married Terry Paul, a construction executive and 1968 graduate of Butler University, and in 1977, when he took a new position in Illinois, she was hired at

WICS WICS (channel 20) is a television station licensed to Springfield, Illinois, United States, affiliated with ABC. The station is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, and maintains studios on East Cook Street in Springfield's Eastside; its t ...

, the then-

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affiliate Affiliation or affiliate may refer to: * Affiliate (commerce), a legal form of entity relationship used in Business Law * Affiliation (family law), a legal form of family relationship * Affiliate marketing * Affiliate network or affiliation platfo ...

Springfield, Illinois Springfield is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Illinois. Its population was 114,394 at the 2020 United States census, which makes it the state's List of cities in Illinois, seventh-most populous cit ...

. While living in the state capital, Paul became involved with Republican party politics, rising to the position of party co-chair, before being tapped to run the

Illinois Lottery The Illinois State Lottery (known simply as the Illinois Lottery) is an American lottery for the U.S. state of Illinois, operated by Allwyn Illinois. Overview The Illinois Lottery began operations on July 1, 1974, when lotteries in the United ...

. In 1999, while Paul was living in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

and running that state's lottery, her husband died. When she moved to Tennessee, she met state legislator

Jere Hargrove Jere Logan Hargrove (born September 17, 1946) is a Tennessee Democratic politician who served in the Tennessee House of Representatives. Early life and education Hargrove was born September 17, 1946, in Cookeville, Tennessee. He was educated a ...

, who was a Democratic member of the

Tennessee House of Representatives The Tennessee House of Representatives is the lower house of the Tennessee General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee. Constitutional requirements According to the state constitution of 1870, this body is to consis ...

. Hargrove did not seek re-election in 2006, and the day after the election, on November 8, 2006, Hargrove and Paul were married in 2006 by Governor

Phil Bredesen Philip Norman Bredesen Jr. (; born November 21, 1943) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 48th governor of Tennessee from 2003 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he was elected in ...

in the governor's mansion. She and Hargrove were divorced in 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paul, Rebecca 1949 births Living people Tennessee Republicans Women in Tennessee politics Illinois Republicans Women in Illinois politics People from Springfield, Illinois Georgia Lottery Florida Lottery Miss America Preliminary Swimsuit winners People from Indianapolis 21st-century American women Butler University alumni