Lawrence Stone

San Jose Magazine named him one of Silicon Valley’s 100 most powerful leaders. Larry Stone remains a permanent fixture in the ever-changing high-tech landscape. During that time he has been interviewed by scores of newspapers, magazines and books. He contributed to Pulitzer Prize winning author and Washington Post reporter Haynes Johnson’s two best selling books, The Best of Times and Sleepwalking Through History.

With more than 30 years of leadership experience in both the public and private sectors, Larry Stone has been successfully applying the principles of effective government management to Santa Clara County since he was first elected in 1994 and overwhelmingly reelected in 1998, 2002 and 2006.

In addition, Stone has been a financial manager on Wall Street and was the founder of a successful Bay Area real estate investment and development firm. He also served 16 years as a council member and Mayor of Sunnyvale during the period the City earned an international reputation for effectiveness and became a model for President Clinton’s efforts to reform the federal bureaucracy. President Clinton said, “the National Performance Review was modeled in part upon the remarkable reinvention efforts pioneered by the City of Sunnyvale, where Larry Stone served as Mayor.”

As County Assessor, Stone has overseen remarkable improvements to streamline the operations of his office, eliminate backlogs, and achieve higher levels of public service, all while consistently operating substantially under budget. The State Board of Equalization acknowledged his office as one of the best-managed assessors’ operations in California. Recognized as an innovative leader in Assessment practices and management, Stone was elected President of the California Assessors’ Association in 2002.

Larry Stone also has been an active and effective civic leader in many fields ranging from the arts, to education, to the environment. Author Haynes Johnson described him as “bright, articulate; an American rarity…a proven political success.”

A native of Seattle, he has an MBA from the University of Washington and has studied at the Institute of Politics at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He and his wife Carmen have lived in Sunnyvale since 1970 where they raised three sons.