About Bill

Former Georgia State Senator Bill Stephens is the son of a welder and a teacher and a sixth generation native of Fannin County in the North Georgia Mountains.

Stephens was elected to the Georgia Senate in 1998 serving eight years and rising from a back bench Freshman to Senate Majority leader in less than five years.  As a result of the Redistricting process, Senator Stephens represented 13 different North Georgia counties in the Senate at one time or another.

Following his Freshman Term, his colleagues elected him as Senate Republican Caucus Chairman, where he helped bring about and lead the historic transition of the Senate from Democratic to Republican control in the election of 2002. Following that historic election, Stephens became a member of Governor Elect Sonny Perdue’s Transition Team, and it’s Spokesperson.

In January of 2003 Stephens was named the first Georgia Senate Republican Administration Floor Leader in 134 years. Six months later, he was elected to the position of Majority leader. He was unanimously elected to a second term in that position. Stephens ran for Georgia Secretary of State in 2006 and lost in a Runoff Election.

Along the way, Stephens also served a term as Chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee and was Vice Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. He authored or co-authored over twenty pieces of major legislation, served on the three member Senate Budget Conference Committee and built a reputation for pointing out real life examples of wasteful governmental spending through the creation of the “Georgia Stuck Pig Award”, given annually for a number of years to recognize the most egregious examples of inappropriate spending of taxpayer dollars.

Stephens received numerous recognitions and awards from groups and associations including the “National Guardian of Small Business Award” presented by the National Federation of Independent Business”.

Stephens’ business career has included the presidency of a small communications firm and more than ten years in the banking industry in Gainesville and North Georgia. Today he is Vice President of Southern Highlands, LLC, and still maintains other family interests in North Georgia.

Early in his career, Stephens served as Georgia Governor Zell Miller’s first Spokesperson and Director of Communications.

Stephens attended Gainesville College on a basketball scholarship and later received his BBA Degree from the University of Georgia and MBA from Georgia State University.

Stephens and his wife, Shannon Walshe Stephens, a former reporter/ news anchor at WSB-television, keep up with five sons, including, Josh, a Senior at UGA who was a walk-on member of the 2006-2007 Bulldog Basketball team, and, Jordan, a member of the US Naval Academy Class of 2010 and a Defensive End for the Midshipmen Football Team.