The son of George Romney, Michigan governor and Republican presidential nominee (he was defeated by Richard Nixon in 1968), Mitt Romney began his career in business. He worked for the management consulting firm Bain & Company before founding the investment firm Bain Capital in 1984. In 1994, he ran for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts but was defeated by longtime incumbent Edward Kennedy.
In 1999, Romney stepped into the national spotlight when he took over as president of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. He helped rescue the 2002 Winter Olympics from financial and ethical woes, and helmed a successful Salt Lake City Olympic Games in 2002.
Mitt Romney parlayed his success with the Olympics into politics when he was elected governor of Massachusetts in 2003. After serving one term, he declined to run for reelection and announced his bid for U.S. president.
Mitt Romney married Ann Davies in 1969; they have five sons, Tagg, Matt, Josh, Ben and Craig. He is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church. Romney is the author of the 2004 book "Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership, and the Olympic Games."
Career:
Governor Mitt Romney has been an effective leader in both the business and public service worlds. With the 2002 Winter Olympics mired in controversy and facing serious financial crisis, Romney was asked to become President and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. Although the challenge seemed daunting, he was compelled to assume the task by both the urging of his wife and the memory of his late father, George Romney, who was a successful businessman, three-term Michigan Governor and tireless advocate of volunteerism.
In his three years in Salt Lake, Romney erased a $379 million operating deficit, organized 23,000 volunteers, galvanized community spirit, oversaw an unprecedented security mobilization to ensure public safety and led one of the most successful Olympics in our nation’s history.
Prior to his service at the Olympics, Romney had a distinguished career in business. From 1978 to 1984, he was a Vice President at Bain and Company, the Boston-based management consulting firm. In 1984, Romney founded Bain Capital, a highly successful investment company that founded, acquired or invested in hundreds of companies,
including Staples, Brookstone and Domino’s Pizza. In 1990, he took a two-year leave of absence from Bain Capital to lead a highly successful turnaround of Bain and Company as its interim CEO during a period of financial turmoil.
Education:
Romney received his BA with highest honors from Brigham Young University in 1971. In 1975, he was awarded an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was named a Baker Scholar, and a JD cum laude from Harvard Law School.
Election History:
Governor Mitt Romney was elected to his first term on November 5, 2002.
Accomplishments:
Since his election, Governor Mitt Romney has been a strong voice for reforming state government, imposing fiscal discipline and improving education.
Romney has launched a major overhaul of Massachusetts state government, working to eliminate waste and patronage and to make outdated bureaucracies more efficient. Working with the Legislature, he has brought the state’s fiscal house in order, turning a $3 billion budget deficit into a $700 million surplus without raising taxes or borrowing.
Romney has made education a top priority. He put in place the John and Abigail Adams Scholarship Program, which gives top achieving students four years of free tuition at any of the state’s colleges or universities. Romney also proposed and signed into law a program to jumpstart the construction or renovation of more than 400 schools across the state and invested additional funds in after school programs in the lowest performing school districts. In addition, he has been a proponent of charter schools, leading the effort to increase the number of these innovative public schools.
Family:
Governor Romney and his wife Ann have been married for 36 years. They have five sons, five daughters-in-law, and eight grandchildren.