Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American businessman and former Republican Governor of Massachusetts. Romney was CEO of Bain & Company, a management consulting firm, and co-founder of Bain Capital, a private equity investment firm. Romney successfully organized and steered the 2002 Winter Olympics as President and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. Romney served one term as Governor from 2003 to 2007, and was a candidate for the Republican nomination in the 2008 United States presidential election. He is widely seen as a frontrunner for the Republican nomination for President in the 2012 Presidential Election.
Early life and education, marriage and family
Romney was born in Detroit, Michigan, and is the son of former three-term Michigan Governor, American Motors chairman and 1968 presidential candidate George W. Romney, and 1970 Michigan U.S. Senatorial candidate Lenore Romney. Mitt's father came from a humble background, and is credited with turning around American Motors from the brink of bankruptcy with his promotion of the fuel economic Rambler. Mitt was named "Willard" after hotel magnate J. Willard Marriott, his father's best friend. Mitt, his middle name, was the nickname of his father's cousin Milton Romney, who played quarterback for the Chicago Bears from 1925 to 1929. Mitt Romney has three older siblings: Lynn Romney Keenan; Jane Romney Robinson; and G. Scott Romney.
Romney was known as a kinetic kid who loved to pull off pranks, once staging an elaborate formal dinner in the center of a busy intersection. Romney graduated with honors from the Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan in 1965.
After attending Stanford University for two quarters, Romney served in France for 30 months as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In June 1968, Romney was involved in a serious car accident while driving fellow missionaries in southern France. A Mercedes hit the Citroën DS Romney was driving; the fault for the accident, which left one person dead, was attributed to the driver of the other vehicle.
Soon after his return from missionary work in France, Romney married high school girlfriend Ann Davies on March 21, 1969.
Romney attended Brigham Young University, where he graduated as valedictorian, earning his Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude in English in 1971. Romney received a ministerial deferment from the military draft while in France, and three years of deferments while a student. When he became eligible for military service in 1970, his high number in the annual draft lottery meant he would not be drafted.
The Romneys' first son, Tagg, was born in 1970 while both were undergraduates at Brigham Young, living in a $75-a-month basement apartment. They subsequently had Matt (born 1971), Josh (born 1975), Ben (born 1978) and Craig (born 1981). Ann Romney's work as a stay-at-home mom would enable her husband to pursue his career, first in business and then in politics.
In 1975, Romney graduated from a prestigious joint Juris Doctor/Master of Business Administration program coordinated between Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School. He graduated cum laude from the law school and was named a Baker Scholar for graduating in the top five percent of his business school class.
Business career
After graduation, Romney remained in Massachusetts and went to work for the Boston Consulting Group, where he had interned during the summer of 1974. Romney rapidly progressed through the ranks and from 1978 to 1984, he was the vice president of Bain & Company, Inc., another management consulting firm based in Boston. In 1984, Romney left Bain & Company to co-found a spin-off private equity investment firm, Bain Capital. During the 14 years he successfully headed the company, Bain Capital's average annual internal rate of return on realized investments was 113 percent, making money primarily through leveraged buyouts. He invested in or bought many well-known companies such as Staples, Brookstone, Domino's, Sealy Corporation and Sports Authority.
In 1990, Romney was asked to return to Bain & Company, which was facing financial collapse. As CEO, Romney managed an effort to restructure the firm's employee stock-ownership plan, real-estate deals and bank loans, while increasing fiscal transparency. Within a year, he had led Bain & Company through a highly successful turnaround and returned the firm to profitability without layoffs or partner defections.
Romney left Bain Capital in 1998 serve as the President and CEO of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games Organizing Committee. He and his wife have a net worth of between 250 and 500 million USD, not including Romney's blind trust in the name of their children, which is valued at about $100 million.
2002 Winter Olympics
Romney served as president and CEO of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games held in Salt Lake City. In 1999, before Romney was hired, the event was running $379 million short of its revenue benchmarks. Plans were being made to scale back the games to compensate for the fiscal crisis. The Games were also damaged by allegations of bribery involving top officials, including then Salt Lake Olympic Committee (SLOC) President and CEO Frank Joklik. Joklik and SLOC vice president Dave Johnson were forced to resign.
On February 11, 1999, Romney was hired as the new president and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. Romney revamped the organization's leadership and policies, organized 23,000 volunteers, reduced budgets, and boosted fund raising. He also worked to ensure the safety of the Games following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 by coordinating a $300 million security budget. Despite the initial fiscal shortfall, the Games ended up clearing a profit of $100 million, not counting the $224.5 million in security costs contributed by outside sources. Romney holds the record for most private money raised by any individual for the Winter Olympics.
Romney contributed $1 million to the Olympics, and donated the $825,000 salary he earned as President and CEO to charity. He wrote a book about his experience titled Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership, and the Olympic Games . Romney was widely praised for his successful efforts to turn around the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Massachusetts political career
Campaign for United States Senate, 1994
Main article: United States Senate election in Massachusetts, 1994In 1994, Romney won the Massachusetts Republican Party's nomination for U.S. Senate. Some early polls showed Romney close to Senator Ted Kennedy. Kennedy was more vulnerable than usual in 1994, in part because of the unpopularity of the Democratic Congress as a whole and also because this was Kennedy's first election since the William Kennedy Smith trial in Florida. Kennedy won the election with 58 percent of the vote to Romney's 41 percent, the second smallest margin in Kennedy's nine elections to the Senate.
Campaign for Governor, 2002
Main article: Massachusetts gubernatorial election, 2002In 2002, Republican Acting Governor Jane Swift was viewed as an unpopular executive, and decided not to seek her party's nomination. Prominent GOP activists campaigned to persuade Romney to run for governor. Massachusetts Democratic Party officials improperly claimed that Romney was ineligible to run for governor, citing residency issues; the Massachusetts State Ballot Law Commission ruled that Romney was eligible to run for office. Supporters of Romney hailed his business record, especially his success with the 2002 Olympics, and the appeal of his broad economic background in the traditionally blue state of Massachusetts. He was elected Governor in November 2002 with 50 percent of the vote over Democratic candidate Shannon O'Brien, who received 45 percent of the vote.
Governor of Massachusetts, 2003–2007
Main article: Governorship of Mitt RomneyRomney was sworn in as the 70th governor of Massachusetts on January 2, 2003. Upon entering office, Romney faced a projected $3 billion deficit, but a previously enacted $1.3 billion capital gains tax increase and $500 million in unanticipated federal grants decreased the deficit to $1.2 billion. Through a combination of spending cuts, increased fees, and removal of corporate tax loopholes, by 2006 the state had a $700 million surplus and was able to cut taxes.
Romney supported raising various fees by more than $300 million, including those for driver's licenses, marriage licenses, and gun licenses. Romney increased the state gasoline fee by 2 cents per gallon, generating about $60 million per year in additional revenue. Romney also closed tax loopholes that brought in another $181 million from businesses over the next two years. The state legislature, with Romney's support, also cut spending by $1.6 billion, including $700 million in reductions in state aid to cities and towns. The cuts also included a $140 million reduction in state funding for higher education, which led state-run colleges and universities to increase tuition by 63%. Romney sought additional cuts in his last year as Massachusetts governor by vetoing nearly 250 items in the state budget. All of those vetoes were overturned by the legislature.
The combined state and local fee burden in Massachusetts increased during Romney's governorship
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