36th Annual Jemison Award Luncheon

The Alabama Venture Club is excited to announce Bill Poole as the Keynote Speaker for the 2025 Jemison Award Luncheon!

Bill Poole was appointed as the Finance Director for the State of Alabama on August 1, 2021. As Alabama’s chief financial officer, Bill serves as an advisor to the Governor and the Legislature in all financial matters and is charged with promoting and protecting the financial interests of the State of Alabama.  

Bill previously served in the Alabama House of Representatives for eleven years and served as the Chairman of the House Ways & Means Education appropriations committee for eight of those years. He successfully sponsored multiple significant legislative proposals involving education financing and reform, infrastructure modernization, modernization of economic incentive programs and strategic economic development initiatives.  

Bill served as Chairman of the Alabama Innovation Commission, formed by Governor Ivey in 2020, tasked with making recommendations to foster and grow Alabama’s technology and innovation economy. Bill now serves as Chairman of Innovate Alabama, a unique public-private partnership that was formed pursuant to the recommendation of the Alabama Innovation Commission.  

An attorney, Bill earned his Juris Doctorate at the University of Alabama School of Law and was a private attorney for seventeen years before accepting the position of Finance Director. Bill worked in Washington D.C. from 1997-2001, where he worked for the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, the international trade law firm Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg P.A. and the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).  

Bill grew up in rural, southwest Alabama. He and his wife Niccole are the parents of Sally, Brother and Whitt Poole. The Pooles are members of First Methodist Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and are involved in a variety of community organizations. 

Host or Publisher Birmingham Venture Club