About the Governor
Bill Ritter, Jr. was elected as Colorado's 41st governor in 2006 -- the first Colorado-born governor in more than 35 years.
He has quickly established the state as a national and international leader on energy innovation, business development, and building a New Energy Economy for Colorado and the nation's future. CNBC recently named Colorado one of the top five states in the country for business, and Money Magazine named Fort Collins the second-best place to live in America.
Gov. Ritter wants to harness Colorado's abundant supplies of traditional and renewable energy, as well as the intellectual capital of its workforce, to provide a catalyst for change towards a more sustainable national energy portfolio that can produce thousands of homegrown jobs.
To achieve that goal, Gov. Ritter has doubled Colorado's renewable energy standard, requiring that 20 percent of the state's electricity come from renewable sources by 2020. He has forged stronger relationships with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and helped create a unique Colorado Renewable Energy "Collaboratory" that links NREL with three of the state's leading universities. This Collaboratory will draw on the combined expertise at NREL and the brainpower at CU, CSU, and Colorado School of Mines to research and develop renewable energy projects and quickly bring them to the commercial market.
Both US and international companies have responded by building and expanding operations in Colorado. Denmark-based Vestas Blades opened its first North American manufacturing plant in Colorado earlier this year, and has announced expansion plans for two more facilities, totaling 2,450 Colorado jobs. ConocoPhillips soon will be opening its global alternative-fuels R&D center in Colorado, which could produce 7,000 jobs by 2010. Gov. Ritter travelled to Spain in July 2008 to meet with several Spanish solar companies, one of which already has its US headquarters near Denver.
To provide the workforce needed for these 21st century jobs, Gov. Ritter is leading a reform of K-12 education in Colorado and has invested more money in higher education than any other Governor in Colorado history. His goal is to ensure that all Colorado students have the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in a 21st century economy, which means cutting the dropout rate and the minority student achievement gap in half and doubling the number of college degrees awarded to Coloradans over the next 10 years.
The sixth of 12 children, Gov. Ritter was raised on a small farm in Arapahoe County. He was a member of the first graduating class of Gateway High School (1974), and he earned his bachelor's degree in political science from Colorado State University (1978) and his law degree from the University of Colorado (1981).
His first job out of law school was as a deputy district attorney in Denver. In 1987, Gov. Ritter and his wife, First Lady Jeannie Ritter, left Denver to run a food distribution and nutrition center in Zambia, Africa. They returned home in 1990, and three years later Ritter was appointed as Denver's District Attorney, a position he held until January 2005. He earned a national reputation as one of the country's most effective and innovative prosecutors, and several of his programs continue to serve as state and national models.
The governor and First Lady Jeannie Ritter have four children: August (22), Abe (20), Sam (17) and daughter Tally (15).
Click here for highlights of the Governor's accomplishments on the New Energy Economy.
Click here for a personal profile of the Governor done by the Rocky Mountain News.