King County Executive Ron Sims has built his career in public service around the progressive principles of social justice, good government and environmental stewardship. He has a national reputation for boldness and vision, and is a champion of reforming government processes to better serve the people of the dynamic, forward-thinking Puget Sound region.His accomplishments at home have earned him two national leader of the year awards, the most recent in July 2008 from American City and County Magazine.

Sims has taken a leadership role on a range of issues, and has compiled a notable list of accomplishments. During his three terms as County Executive, Sims has established a strong record of environmental protection. An ardent conservationist, Sims has protected more than 100,000 acres of green space in King County since 1997 and increased the county's trails to 175 miles. His Climate Plan, which is aimed at reducing and adapting to the effects of global warming, is lauded as one of the most comprehensive in the nation. In May of 2007, Sims, along with actor/environmentalist Robert Redford, was among six individuals given the Climate Protection Award from the Environmental Protection Agency. He has also been recognized nationally for his leadership on a regional effort to stop the degradation of Puget Sound and to restore runs of the prized chinook salmon, declared threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1999.

Sims has been a regional leader on managing growth in the economically booming King County region by driving smart, comprehensive strategies to reduce traffic congestion. The county links land use planning with creating communities that encourage active lifestyles and less use of automobiles. He is a respected advocate for new solutions to moving people in the 21st century. He is widely credited with turning around Sound Transit, an agency that is on track to reduce congestion with a voter-approved light rail system, expanded regional bus service and commuter train service to surrounding communities. He has pushed for more use of new fuel technologies resulting in Metro Transit being one of the greenest large transit agencies in the nation and the county being the largest purchaser of biofuels in the state. Already operating the largest fleet of articulated hybrid buses in the world, Metro this spring signed a contract for purchase of up to 500 additional articulated hybrids as part of a service expansion designed to get 50,000 drivers out of their cars and onto buses by 2016.

Despite a recession a few years ago, he has protected King County's financial standing by exercising fiscal prudence tempered by a deeply caring set of values: he cut budgets while protecting core services and health and social services funding. As a result the county's bond rating is the highest in its history—AAA from all three of the nation's rating agencies. His efforts to ensure the county is delivering the highest quality service to its residents has put King County at the forefront of government performance management.

His regional public/private partnership to reform health care through the Puget Sound Health Alliance is seen as a national model. And the King County employee health initiative, which ties participation in wellness activities to out-of-pocket expense levels, is designed to cut escalating health care costs by tens of millions of dollars within five years.

His ability to work successfully across diverse constituencies was vividly illustrated by prestigious awards from both the Master Builders of King and Snohomish Counties and and the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle in 2006. Nationally, his propensity to push for innovative solutions earned him a Public Official of the Year Award from Governing Magazine and a national award from the Sierra Club. He was also named 2006 Husband of the Year by Seattle Magazine.

Born in Spokane, Washington in 1948, Ron marched alongside his politically active parents in the struggle for racial equality, and honed a passion for civil rights issues that has been a guidepost throughout his political career.

After graduating from Central Washington University, where he was elected student body president, Sims worked on consumer protection issues at the Washington State Attorney General's office and the Federal Trade Commission. Recruited to run the City of Seattle's juvenile offender program, Ron remained head of the program until becoming a legislative aide in the Washington State Senate.

In 1985, Ron was first elected to the King County Council. While serving in that capacity, Sims developed a reputation as a tireless legislator, working on a diverse palette of issues that led to advances in the areas of the environment, education, county budgeting, public safety and the protection of workers' rights.

In 1996 Ron was appointed King County Executive after then-Executive Gary Locke was elected governor. Easily winning election the following year, Sims was reelected by wide margins in 2001 and 2005.

As Executive, he is charged with overseeing the 13th largest county in the nation. It includes the city of Seattle, and with an overall population of 1.8 million, King County is home to about 30 percent of Washington state's population and alone accounts for more than 40 percent of the state's jobs. The County government has a workforce of over 13,000 and an annual budget of $4.4 billion.

Sims is the former chairman of the Sound Transit Board of Directors, a member of the advisory board of the Brookings Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy and the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, Co-Chair of the Committee to End Homelessness, founding Chair of the Puget Sound Health Alliance, and on the board of trustees for Rainier Scholars.