James Cooke

James O. Cooke, IV is the City Treasurer-Clerk of the City of Tallahassee, Florida — one of four appointed officials in the city's charter government, alongside the City Manager, City Attorney, and City Auditor. He earned both his Bachelor of Science in Accounting (1985) and his Master of Accounting (1986) from Florida State University's College of Business. He is a Certified Public Accountant.

Cooke began his career as an auditor on the audit staff of Price Waterhouse in Atlanta, Georgia, and later worked at Bennett Thrasher LLP in Atlanta. Around the mid-1990s he returned to Tallahassee, joining the accounting firm Williams, Cox, Weidner & Cox (since merged into Carr, Riggs & Ingram) as a manager. He joined the City of Tallahassee in 2002 as Deputy Treasurer-Clerk, a role he held for roughly ten years before the City Commission appointed him City Treasurer-Clerk in 2012.

As Treasurer-Clerk, Cooke directs five city divisions — treasury/asset-liability management, records management, revenue collection, risk management, and retirement. In this capacity he oversees the investment of roughly $1.5 billion in the city's pension plan assets and approximately $500 million in the city's 401(a) and 457 defined-contribution plans (approximately $2 billion in retirement assets in total). Over his tenure he has also overseen on the order of $2.0 billion in municipal debt issuances, including capital and refunding bond series.

Beyond his city role, Cooke holds several finance-related community and professional positions: he has served as vice-chairman (and board member) of the Florida Cooperative Liquid Assets Securities System (FLCLASS), as an investment committee member of the Community Foundation of North Florida and the Florida State University Seminole Boosters, and as president of the Big Bend chapter of the Florida Government Finance Officers Association. He is an active member of the national Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA).

Cooke's "investment" work is institutional public-fund and pension management, not venture capital. What is documented:

• Manages public capital, not startup equity: He oversees investment of ~$1.5 billion in City of Tallahassee pension assets plus ~$500 million in the city's defined-contribution (401a/457) plans.
• Fiduciary, long-horizon mandate: As a public-pension steward, his focus is on prudent, diversified, liability-matched portfolios governed by the city's retirement system investment policy — the opposite of high-risk early-stage bets.
• Debt and treasury management: He directs the city's asset/liability management and has overseen roughly $2.0 billion in municipal bond issuances (e.g., capital refunding bonds), plus day-to-day treasury and revenue-collection operations.
• Short-term public cash pools: Through his FLCLASS leadership, he is involved in a cooperative local-government investment pool emphasizing safety, liquidity, and yield for Florida public entities.
• No stated startup/angel thesis exists in any source reviewed; treating him as a seed-stage angel would be inaccurate.