Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2003 | 9:17 a.m.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee lottery officials lured away the chief of the Georgia lottery Monday, asking her to do what she's done twice before in her career -- build a state's games from the ground up.
Rebecca Paul, who led both the Georgia and Florida lotteries from the beginning and revived sales as head of the Illinois games, was introduced by Tennessee officials as "the gold standard" and "the best in the business."
"No one ever said that I didn't like challenges and that I didn't love new mountains to climb," the 54-year-old Paul said.
Democratic state Sen. Steve Cohen of Memphis, who has pushed for a lottery for 20 years, bowed and kissed Paul's hand at a news conference. State Rep. Chris Newton, R-Benton, gave her an orange University of Tennessee flag and license plate.
"Rebecca Paul is the Pat Summitt of the lottery world," Tennessee Education Lottery Corp. chairman Denny Bottorff said, referring to the hugely successful women's basketball coach at Tennessee. "Rebecca is widely recognized to be the best in the business, bar none. No one is in her league."
Paul, who led Georgia's games for a decade, was already the highest-paid lottery executive in the United States. She earned $500,000 from Georgia in the last fiscal year and her package in Tennessee could pay her up to $752,500.
It includes a base salary of $350,000, with hefty incentives based on three conditions: Tennessee's lottery must be up and running by Feb. 17, it must be online 60 days after that and must reach $122 million in net revenue in her first year.
Just weeks ago, Paul was in negotiations with Tennessee to form a unique partnership in which Tennessee would piggyback on Georgia's technical contracts while Georgia would get a cut of the savings or extra revenue.
Tennessee eventually rejected the idea. Bottorff said neither party brought up Paul taking the Tennessee job during the Georgia negotiations.
"But I can say, in our minds, she was the gold standard," he said. "We compared everybody to her ... It would be irresponsible of us if we don't pursue the best CEO in the world."
Paul made a name for herself after taking over the Illinois lottery in 1985, growing flat sales to a then-record $1.34 billion. After going to Florida in 1987 to start that state's successful lottery, she launched Georgia's games, which began selling tickets in 1993 and have pumped nearly $6 billion into college scholarships and pre-kindergarten programs.
Last November Tennessee voters chose to remove a constitutional ban on lotteries, giving the state Legislature authority to set up games to fund education. It took legislators five months to send bills to Gov. Phil Bredesen to create the lottery.
The Tennessee lottery's seven-member board of directors, who were selected by Bredesen and confirmed by the Legislature, run the lottery independently of state government. At one time, Cohen and Bredesen squabbled over who got to choose the board members.
"The selection of Rebecca Paul shows that the Legislature did the right thing in giving Gov. Bredesen the seven appointments," Cohen said. "It's worked out."
Profits from the games must first go to scholarships, with any excess directed only to pre-kindergarten programs and K-12 school construction. In its first year, the lottery is expected to bring in at least $200 million after prizes and expenses, with scholarships costing an estimated $175 million.
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