Teresa A. Wahlert

From dKosopedia

Category: Iowa Republicans

Teresa Wahlert (R) was named President and Chief Operating Officer of Mid-America Group in February 2004. Mid-America Group is a regional real estate, investment and development firm which specializes in owning and managing Class A office complexes, industrial and commercial business parks, residential land development and brokerage, and various other investment projects. She is a friend and colleague of Marvin Pomerantz.

Before joining Mid-America Group, Ms. Wahlert was the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Greater Des Moines Partnership. Ms. Wahlert was responsible for the operational oversight of the Partnership’s $7 million annual budget maintaining strategic alliances with business, education and governmental entities throughout the community.

Wahlert was formerly Regional Vice President and Arizona’s Vice President of Policy and Law for Qwest Services Corporation. She retired from Qwest in August, 2002 after 32 years of service that included positions as Vice President for U.S. WEST in both Iowa and North Dakota. Wahlert directed the Company’s legislative efforts that resulted in the passage of two major bills in North Dakota and eight major bills in Iowa, primarily dealing with regulations. The seven-member Congressional delegation voted in favor of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. In Arizona, she presided over the transition to all digital switching in the state, the institution of alternative form of regulation, and the historic improvement in service quality benchmarks.

Wahlert began her career as an assistant analyst in Data Systems for Northwestern Bell in Omaha in 1970. She held a variety of positions in Data Systems and Accounting. In 1981, she was promoted to District Manager-Finance at AT&T headquarters in New York She returned to Omaha in 1983 to become General Finance Manager. In 1986, she became Assistant Vice President-Finance for U.S. WEST.

Wahlert serves as a member of the University of Iowa Henry B. Tippie College Board of Visitors; Wells Fargo of Iowa Community Board; and Greater Des Moines Partnership Board of Directors. She served as the 2000 Chairperson of the Greater Des Moines Partnership. She was named a 2003 Business Record Female Business Woman of the Year; 2004 Business Record Woman of Influence; and was a 2004 inductee into the Iowa Business Hall of Fame.

A native of Dubuque, Wahlert is featured in the book, “Success on Our Own Terms.” She has a Master of Science in Business as a Sloan Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She also holds a Master in Business Administration from Creighton University and a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from St. Mary’s at Notre Dame.

(This entry was copied verbatim from the Iowa Board of Regents website.)

She was a member of the Iowa Board of Regents from 2005-2007. She led a failed search for a new president of the University of Iowa, which ended by rejecting all of the final candidates.