Mike Beebe

Mike Beebe is a member of BPC’s Governors’ Council. He served as governor of Arkansas from 2007 to 2015.

As governor, Beebe’s education policies and initiatives garnered nationwide attention, and during his tenure, Arkansas ranked fifth in overall K-12 education. To build a better-trained workforce, Beebe matched colleges and universities with local businesses and led changes in the way schools teach math, science, engineering, and technology subjects.

Arkansas also significantly improved health care during Beebe’s time in office. The Arkansas Health Care Payment Improvement Initiative reined in rising costs by giving doctors financial incentives to provide better care more efficiently. Additionally, Beebe led the effort to fund Arkansas’s statewide trauma system. Today, Arkansas’s Trauma Call Center has established itself as a national trendsetter.

First as state senator for 20 years and then as attorney general for four years, Beebe consistently reached across party lines to solve problems. In 2011, Beebe was honored by Governing magazine as Public Official of the Year.

Born in Amagon, Arkansas, Beebe earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Arkansas State University in 1968, and completed law school at the University of Arkansas in 1972, while serving in the U.S. Army Reserve.