Governor Branstad served four consecutive four-year terms as the chief executive of the state of Iowa. He completed his term of office in January of 1999. While in office, Governor Branstad made education a top priority of his administration.

In addition to his efforts in restoring Iowa's economic stature, he emphasized the need for all children in the state to receive the highest quality education, no matter what their ability and circumstances of birth. He led the effort that built a statewide fiber optics network to provide distance learning opportunities to every school district, college and university in the state of Iowa.

His leadership capabilities have been recognized through his chairmanship of the National Governors Association (NGA) (1989), and of the Republican Governors Association (1997), and his leadership in education is exemplified by his chairmanship of the Education Commission of the States (1998). As NGA chairman, he led the historic 1989 education summit in Charlottesville, Va. With the support of President Bush, the summit called for the development of performance-based National Education Goals. Those goals were subsequently adopted by the NGA in 1990.

Governor Branstad has had careers as a farmer and an attorney and served his country with the U.S. Army from 1969-1971. He is a native of Leland, Iowa, and he and his wife, Chris, have three grown children.

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