Frank T. Caprio
Encyclopedia
Frank T. Caprio is a Managing Director at Chatham Capital a mezzanine finance firm with offices in Atlanta, Dallas and Providence. He had a twenty year political career which included being elected as the former General Treasurer of Rhode Island
. He was the first political candidate in the United States to use on-demand
television to reach voters and one of the first candidates to launch an Internet
TV channel for use in a political campaign in 2006.
Caprio was the Democratic nominee in the 2010 Rhode Island gubernatorial election. The race was won by now Governor, Lincoln Chafee
who won with 36 percent of the vote.
, and he is the brother of Rhode Island State Representative David Caprio
. He attended public schools in Narragansett, Rhode Island
, and graduated from Bishop Hendricken High School
in 1984. He earned a degree
in economics from Harvard University
in 1988. While at Harvard, Caprio was captain of the Harvard baseball team. He was an All-Eastern League outfielder in 1988, and an All-Ivy League defensive back on the championship Harvard football team in 1987. He played against Roger Clemens
in a 1987 exhibition game and was scouted by Boston Red Sox
legend Ted Williams
. Caprio earned a J.D. at Suffolk University
Law School in 1991 and passed the bar exams in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
As a lawyer, Caprio focused on corporate, tax, and finance issues. He worked as an in-house counsel at Cookson Group plc, a publicly traded company on the London Stock Exchange
.
in Atlanta. In 1990, while still attending law school, Caprio was elected to the Rhode Island House of Representatives
for District 14 (Providence). He served two terms as a state representative, traveling by train between classes in Boston each morning and legislative sessions in Providence each afternoon.
Following those two terms, Caprio spent the next 12 years serving in the Rhode Island Senate
, where he chaired the Senate Finance Committee in 2001–2002. In this position, Caprio saved an annual $5 million affordable housing program from being cut by the governor in 2001. He then proposed and implemented a plan to expand the $5 million to $10 million through an affordable housing bond. In 2006, he co-sponsored a bill to increase the annual $10 million bond to a $50 million affordable housing fund. The housing fund was approved by voters in 2006.
Caprio also led the debate on phasing out Rhode Island's capital gains tax
, which would allow Rhode Islanders to have the nation’s lowest tax rate on their stock
and real estate
profits. This tax change became law in 2007. He was removed from his chairmanship by Senate leadership in 2002 as a result of his outspoken advocacy of the Separation of Powers amendment. After some of the Senate leaders were removed from office in 2003, the amendment passed the legislature and became law after a statewide vote. In 2004, Caprio was named chair of the Senate Commerce, Housing, and Municipal Government Committee.
Caprio made Rhode Island history as the first candidate in the state to officially announce his candidacy via a multimedia
broadcast that included television, Web
, on-demand cable television, and radio. This was done, he explained, because he wants his "vision for the treasurer’s office" to be accessible to "as many Rhode Islanders as possible in as comfortable a format as possible."
Caprio was the first political candidate in the United States to use On-Demand Television in a campaign. His television documentary, Caprio, the Biography, was available for free viewing throughout Rhode Island via Cox Communications
's On-Demand program. He also launched one of the nation's first campaign internet TV channels. Both the website and his television ads garnered awards.
As part of his effort to ensure the health of Rhode Island’s pension system, Caprio moved $1 billion from Quality D money market funds (with loose terms that could have allowed for investment in CDOs and SIVs) into Quality A institutional money market funds. This occurred before the subprime crisis began to shake financial markets. At the same time, Caprio moved approximately $150 million in high-yield investments into safe Treasury bonds, before the high yield market began to decline. Rhode Island’s pension fund has maintained its 5-year average on investment returns in spite of the current economic turmoil.
Caprio’s approach to assessing and managing risk has helped ensure that the public funds managed by his office avoid the investment losses now plaguing other states. During Caprio's term the Rhode Island State Pension fund outperformed the States of Massachusetts and California State Pension funds as well as the Harvard endowment. In the midst of the 2008 market collapse, Caprio established a financial “SWAT team” of Rhode Island’s top financial minds to ensure the State’s protection from AIG’s collapse.
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
. He was the first political candidate in the United States to use on-demand
Video on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
television to reach voters and one of the first candidates to launch an Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
TV channel for use in a political campaign in 2006.
Caprio was the Democratic nominee in the 2010 Rhode Island gubernatorial election. The race was won by now Governor, Lincoln Chafee
Lincoln Chafee
Lincoln Davenport Chafee is an American politician who has been the 74th Governor of Rhode Island since January 2011. Prior to his election as governor, Chafee served in the United States Senate as a Republican from 1999 until losing his Senate re-election bid in 2006 to Democrat Sheldon...
who won with 36 percent of the vote.
Education and early career
Frank T. Caprio is the eldest child of Joyce and Judge Frank CaprioFrank Caprio (judge)
Judge Frank Caprio is the television judge on ABC's Caught in Providence. He is also the chief municipal judge in Providence, Rhode Island and a member of the Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Board of Rejents.Judge Frank Caprio is the son of Antonio Caprio, an...
, and he is the brother of Rhode Island State Representative David Caprio
David Caprio
David A. Caprio is an American attorney and Rhode Island State Representative from District 34. He was first elected on December 21, 1999. Caprio represents portions of South Kingstown and Narragansett. He is the son of Joyce and the Chief of the Providence Municipal Court Judge Frank Caprio and...
. He attended public schools in Narragansett, Rhode Island
Narragansett, Rhode Island
Narragansett is a town in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 15,868 at the 2010 census, but there is a greater population in the summer. The nickname for the town is "Gansett". The town of Narragansett occupies a narrow strip of land running along the eastern bank...
, and graduated from Bishop Hendricken High School
Bishop Hendricken High School
Bishop Thomas Francis Hendricken High School is a Catholic, all-male, college preparatory high school located in Warwick, Rhode Island, in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence....
in 1984. He earned a degree
Academic degree
An academic degree is a position and title within a college or university that is usually awarded in recognition of the recipient having either satisfactorily completed a prescribed course of study or having conducted a scholarly endeavour deemed worthy of his or her admission to the degree...
in economics from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1988. While at Harvard, Caprio was captain of the Harvard baseball team. He was an All-Eastern League outfielder in 1988, and an All-Ivy League defensive back on the championship Harvard football team in 1987. He played against Roger Clemens
Roger Clemens
William Roger Clemens , nicknamed "Rocket", is a former Major League Baseball pitcher who broke into the league with the Boston Red Sox, whose pitching staff he would help anchor for 12 years. Clemens won seven Cy Young Awards, more than any other pitcher. He played for four different teams over...
in a 1987 exhibition game and was scouted by Boston Red Sox
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of Major League Baseball’s American League Eastern Division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Red Sox's home ballpark has been Fenway Park since . The "Red Sox"...
legend Ted Williams
Ted Williams
Theodore Samuel "Ted" Williams was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire 21-year Major League Baseball career as the left fielder for the Boston Red Sox...
. Caprio earned a J.D. at Suffolk University
Suffolk University
Suffolk University is a private, non-sectarian, university located in Boston, Massachusetts and with over 16,000 students it is the third largest university in Boston...
Law School in 1991 and passed the bar exams in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
As a lawyer, Caprio focused on corporate, tax, and finance issues. He worked as an in-house counsel at Cookson Group plc, a publicly traded company on the London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
.
Early career
Caprio began his political career while a senior at Harvard, when he was 21 years old. He was elected a delegate from Rhode Island’s Congressional District 2 and attended the 1988 Democratic National Convention1988 Democratic National Convention
The 1988 National Convention of the U.S. Democratic Party was held at The Omni in Atlanta, Georgia from July 18–July 21, 1988 to select a candidate for the 1988 United States presidential election. At the convention Gov. Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts was nominated for President and...
in Atlanta. In 1990, while still attending law school, Caprio was elected to the Rhode Island House of Representatives
Rhode Island House of Representatives
The Rhode Island House of Representatives is the lower house of the Rhode Island General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. State of Rhode Island. It is composed of 75 members, elected to two year terms from 75 districts of equal population. The Rhode Island General Assembly does not have...
for District 14 (Providence). He served two terms as a state representative, traveling by train between classes in Boston each morning and legislative sessions in Providence each afternoon.
Following those two terms, Caprio spent the next 12 years serving in the Rhode Island Senate
Rhode Island Senate
The Rhode Island Senate is the upper house of the Rhode Island General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. State of Rhode Island. It is composed of 38 Senators, each of whom is elected to a two-year term. Rhode Island is one of the 14 states where its upper house serves at a two-year...
, where he chaired the Senate Finance Committee in 2001–2002. In this position, Caprio saved an annual $5 million affordable housing program from being cut by the governor in 2001. He then proposed and implemented a plan to expand the $5 million to $10 million through an affordable housing bond. In 2006, he co-sponsored a bill to increase the annual $10 million bond to a $50 million affordable housing fund. The housing fund was approved by voters in 2006.
Caprio also led the debate on phasing out Rhode Island's capital gains tax
Capital gains tax
A capital gains tax is a tax charged on capital gains, the profit realized on the sale of a non-inventory asset that was purchased at a lower price. The most common capital gains are realized from the sale of stocks, bonds, precious metals and property...
, which would allow Rhode Islanders to have the nation’s lowest tax rate on their stock
Stock
The capital stock of a business entity represents the original capital paid into or invested in the business by its founders. It serves as a security for the creditors of a business since it cannot be withdrawn to the detriment of the creditors...
and real estate
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
profits. This tax change became law in 2007. He was removed from his chairmanship by Senate leadership in 2002 as a result of his outspoken advocacy of the Separation of Powers amendment. After some of the Senate leaders were removed from office in 2003, the amendment passed the legislature and became law after a statewide vote. In 2004, Caprio was named chair of the Senate Commerce, Housing, and Municipal Government Committee.
Campaign
On November 7, 2006, Caprio, the endorsed candidate of the Democratic Party, was elected General Treasurer of Rhode Island, receiving 73% of the vote. He won by a larger margin than any candidate for a contested statewide office on the Rhode Island ballot in 2006.Caprio made Rhode Island history as the first candidate in the state to officially announce his candidacy via a multimedia
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
broadcast that included television, Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
, on-demand cable television, and radio. This was done, he explained, because he wants his "vision for the treasurer’s office" to be accessible to "as many Rhode Islanders as possible in as comfortable a format as possible."
Caprio was the first political candidate in the United States to use On-Demand Television in a campaign. His television documentary, Caprio, the Biography, was available for free viewing throughout Rhode Island via Cox Communications
Cox Communications
Cox Communications is a privately owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises providing digital cable television, telecommunications and wireless services in the United States...
's On-Demand program. He also launched one of the nation's first campaign internet TV channels. Both the website and his television ads garnered awards.
Investments and the 2008 market crisis
Months before the subprime mortgage crisis began to take a toll on banks, financial services companies and public pension funds, Caprio began to minimize the State’s exposure to asset backed securities. Steps included conducting a competitive bidding process that expanded the number of qualified investment banks underwriting the State's bond transactions, and minimizing the State’s exposure to companies such as Bear Stearns.As part of his effort to ensure the health of Rhode Island’s pension system, Caprio moved $1 billion from Quality D money market funds (with loose terms that could have allowed for investment in CDOs and SIVs) into Quality A institutional money market funds. This occurred before the subprime crisis began to shake financial markets. At the same time, Caprio moved approximately $150 million in high-yield investments into safe Treasury bonds, before the high yield market began to decline. Rhode Island’s pension fund has maintained its 5-year average on investment returns in spite of the current economic turmoil.
Caprio’s approach to assessing and managing risk has helped ensure that the public funds managed by his office avoid the investment losses now plaguing other states. During Caprio's term the Rhode Island State Pension fund outperformed the States of Massachusetts and California State Pension funds as well as the Harvard endowment. In the midst of the 2008 market collapse, Caprio established a financial “SWAT team” of Rhode Island’s top financial minds to ensure the State’s protection from AIG’s collapse.
Personal life
Caprio is married to Gabriella (DiGiacinto) Caprio and he has two children, Ashley and Frank II.External links
- Caprio for Governor official campaign site
- Caprio TV