Bill Owens (Colorado politician)

William F. "Bill" Owens ( born October 22, 1950 in Fort Worth, Texas) is an American politician. He belongs to the Republican Party and from 1999 to 2007, the 40th Governor of the State of Colorado.

Career

After his studies at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin Owens has spent over 20 years as a consultant, including worked for Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. He is regarded as Russia or Soviet Union expert and regularly lectures on the subject.

Since 1982, Owens has worked in politics, including as a member of the House of Representatives from Colorado from 1982 to 1988 and then as a member of the State Senate 1988 until 1994. In 1994 he was elected Minister of Finance ( State Treasurer ) of Colorado.

Owens won the gubernatorial election in 1998 with a wafer-thin majority against his Democratic counterpart candidate Gail Schoettler and was sworn in on 12 January 1999 as governor of Colorado. In 2002 he met the re-election attempt on the Democrats Rollie Heath and was with a clear majority of 64 % of the vote, the best result ever achieved a governor of Colorado, confirmed. 2007 ended his tenure as governor. He was succeeded by Democrat Bill Ritter.

Family

Bill Owens is married and has three children.