Dan Schwartz

Daniel Mark Schwartz (born July 28, 1950) is an American businessman who served as Nevada State Treasurer from January 2015 to January 2019.

Schwartz was born on July 28, 1950, in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Francine (née Abrahams) and Jim Schwartz.

His grandfather was a rabbi and his father was an early Holiday Inn owner.

He has one brother, Stephen, and one sister, Marian.

Schwartz attended Oak Park and River High School where he graduated in the "top 20" of his 800-member class and was president of his senior class.

The bank, which became First City Bancorporation of Texas, Inc. was the largest bank in Texas during the 1970s.

Schwartz attended Princeton University and graduated with an A.B. in politics in 1972 after completing a senior thesis titled "Theory of the American State."

In his junior year, Schwartz studied at the Instituts d'études politiques in Paris, France, where he was awarded a Certificat d'Etudes Politiques.

After graduation, Schwartz enlisted in the United States Army in September 1972, where he rose to the rank of Specialist 4th Class and served on a Pershing Missile base in West Germany from January 1973 to September 1974.

He was honorably discharged.

He received his M.B.A. from Columbia University Graduate School of Business (1978); and his J.D. from Boston University (1981).

Schwartz began his financial career in private placements at First City National Bank of Houston in 1978.

During the 78th session of the Nevada Legislature, Schwartz was the first to publicly question Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval's proposed $7.3 billion budget, which contained $1.1 billion in tax increases.

Schwartz outlined his concerns in a three-page memo to the Senate Finance Committee, which among other issues, challenged the State's ability to implement the tax hikes at one time.

In 1982, he briefly worked in corporate finance at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in New York City before going on to work for Daiwa Capital Markets, where he started their mergers and acquisitions department and was a member of the team that underwrote the first Euroyen bond for an overseas company – Sears.

He then joined Becker Paribas Inc., where he was part of the group which started Paribas Merchant Banking Group in 1985.

In September 1986, Schwartz founded his own boutique financial advisory firm, Ulmer Brothers, Inc., specializing in cross-border mergers and acquisitions.

While at Ulmer Brothers, Schwartz advised on the first IPO of a Japanese subsidiary of a U.S. company in 1989.

The firm also published several newsletters and journals, which captured Schwartz's interest.

He soon shifted his career path to financial publishing.

In 1993, Schwartz purchased the Asian Venture Capital Journal (AVCJ) in Hong Kong.

AVCJ became a leading source of information on Asian private equity and venture capital, and its AVCJ Forum became the top private equity and venture capital event in Asia.

AVCJ also became the first company to distribute the digital edition of a print publication in 1998.

In 1998, Schwartz founded Qiosk.com, an online news aggregator and distributor, which became one of the early pioneers of delivering print publications via the internet.

He is still a majority shareholder in the company today.

Schwartz entered a competitive race for United States House of Representatives in Nevada's newly created 4th congressional district.

He finished behind current Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske and the eventual nominee Danny Tarkanian.

The company was purchased by British publishing company Incisive Media in 2006.

Schwartz relinquished his title of chairman Emeritus of AVCJ in 2008.

From 2012 to 2014, Schwartz served as Finance Chair for the Nevada Republican Party.

Schwartz told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in a 2013 interview that he supported a "path to citizenship" for undocumented immigrants who had established themselves in the United States, but more importantly, called out the need for an immigration bill.

On September 18, 2013, Schwartz announced his candidacy for Nevada State Treasurer at a meeting of the Clark County Republican Party Central Committee in Las Vegas, Nevada.

His campaign was largely focused on improving returns on the State's funds while protecting and expanding college scholarship and savings programs.

An international businessman, attorney and Republican, Schwartz defeated his Democratic opponent, former Nevada State Controller Kim Wallin, in 2014.

AVCJ was subsequently sold to BC Partners-owned Mergermarket Group in 2015.

Nevada's ESA bill was passed in the 2015 legislature, to be administered by the Nevada Treasurer's office, and is called the first universal ESA program in the nation.

The program seeks to improve Nevada's ranking among the 50 states.

He lost the Republican primary for Nevada's 3rd congressional district in 2020.

Schwartz was endorsed by state assemblymen Al Kramer, John Hambrick, former Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, Danny and Amy Tarkanian, former Nevada State Controller Ron Knecht and former state senator Sue Lowden.

He ran for Lieutenant Governor of Nevada in 2022.