George Cheatham

​Chair - CERS Board of Trustees
Member - CERS Investment Committee
Member - CERS Finance Committee
Member - CERS Personnel Committee

Governor Appointee – Term expires March 31, 2025

George "Lisle" C. Cheatham II was appointed to the CERS Board of Trustees by Governor Andy Beshear for a four-year term beginning April 1, 2021. He was nominated for appointment by the Kentucky School Boards Association (KSBA).​

Mr. Cheatham is president and a founding member of American Financial Consultants, Inc., a Kentucky-based financial services firm specializing in providing personalized investment, insurance, and life planning services to individuals, business owners, and non-profit entities across the south. Mr. Cheatham received degrees in both Economics and Political Science from the University of Kentucky. Upon graduation, he began his financial services career with a New York-based Wall Street firm with offices in Lexington, KY. In 1991, he along with three other partners founded American Financial Consultants, Inc.

Mr. Cheatham is a registered representative through NEXT Financial Group, Inc., a member of FINRA/SIPC and a member of the Atria Wealth Solutions family of companies. Mr. Cheatham also holds the Certified Financial Fiduciary® designation through the National Association of Certified Financial Fiduciaries. In addition to American Financial Consultants, Inc., Mr. Cheatham is the managing partner of Commonwealth Capital Development, LLC, a real estate development and leasing company.

Mr. Cheatham has served in several leadership positions across Kentucky, including Leadership Kentucky Board of Directors, the Executive Board and Board of Directors of the Kentucky League of Cities, the State of Kentucky Local Distribution Fund Oversight Committee, as well as Chairperson of the Elizabethtown Community and Technical College Board of Directors. Mr. Cheatham currently serves on the Board of Directors of Forever Green, Inc., a non-profit focused on providing educational, aesthetic, scientific, cultural, and historic information to enhance the awareness and appreciation of the upper Green River, one of the most biodiverse river systems in North America.

Mr. Cheatham served four terms (16 years) as Mayor for the city of Greensburg. In that role, Mr. Cheatham worked to attract over $20 million in public and private investment used to revitalize the City's Downtown Historic District, repair and upgrade the City's water and wastewater systems, and implement the City's first parks system, thereby gaining Greensburg the reputation of one of the most progressive and efficiently run small towns in Kentucky.