Mitt Romney

American businessman and politician, Republican Party candidate who won the November 2002 gubernatorial election in Massachusetts and who threw his hat in the 2008 race for the White House. With his thin good looks, youthful and energetic appearance, strict moral emphasis, business triumphs, a lovely wife and five successful sons by his side, Romney presents himself as the answer to a conservative’s prayers.

Romney is the youngest of four sons of George Romney, a former Governor of Michigan who was also an accomplished business executive, Cabinet Secretary and church elder. Young Mitt grew up in a religious Mormon household and idolized his dad. In the summer of 1966 he left college and went to France as a missionary for his faith. There he suffered two painful experiences that deeply affected him. In 1967, his father, then Governor of Michigan, was a popular candidate to be the Republican Party’s nominee in the 1968 presidential election. But in August 1967, he reversed his pro-Vietnam war position, making a statement that he had been “brainwashed” into believing that the war was justified. The elder Romney lost his party’s approval, and Richard Nixon won the nomination and election. Young Mitt was devastated at his father’s reversal of political fortune. Several months later, in June 1968, Mitt was driving some of his fellow missionaries on a mountain road in France. An oncoming car struck Romney’s, killing one of Mitt’s colleagues and severely injuring the other passengers. Mitt himself was so badly hurt that the initial police reports declared him dead. He spent several months recovering physically from the accident and turned to his faith for emotional healing. It was in his hospital bed that he vowed to make something of his life.

On his return to the states, Romney went on to graduate from Brigham Young University in 1971 and earn his law and business degrees from Harvard. In 1978, Romney joined consulting firm Bain & Co.