Biography of Governor Hoeven
JOHN HOEVEN was sworn in as the state's 31st Governor in December 2000 and began working to build North Dakota's future by focusing on six pillars of growth: education, economic development, agriculture, energy, technology and quality of life.
Under his leadership, North Dakota has expanded and diversified its economy, adding thousands of new jobs and growing its targeted industry sectors, including value-added agriculture, advanced manufacturing, energy development, technology-based business and tourism. During his term, North Dakota's personal income growth has outpaced the national average. Today, North Dakota continues to grow its economy.
Because of Hoeven's stewardship, the state ended the last fiscal biennium with a strong reserve for North Dakota's future. In fact, under the governor's leadership, and working with the Legislature, the State of North Dakota cut property and income taxes by more than half a billion dollars in the last four years, while continuing to fund priorities like education, health care, law enforcement and other critical areas. His current budget focuses on investments that will continue to stimulate the state's economy, as well as enhanced support for education, economic development and North Dakota families.
In his third term, Hoeven remains committed to enhancing the state's business climate, reducing taxes and promoting a higher standard of living and a better quality of life for all North Dakotans. Building on previous initiatives, he has advanced new incentives for economic development, renewable energy, and research and development, as well as additional investments in education, including increases for teacher compensation, education equity and adequacy, and expanded funding for Centers of Excellence, an initiative that combines education and economic development to create higher-paying jobs and new business opportunities for North Dakota citizens.
Hoeven continues to promote EmpowerND, the state's first multi-resource energy policy, which he initiated in 2002 as part of North Dakota's comprehensive economic development strategic plan. EmpowerND has deployed a wide range of incentives for each energy sector, both renewable and traditional, as well as a conservation component. Through EmpowerND, Hoeven has worked to advance energy resources like lignite coal, oil and gas, while at the same time promoting renewable resources, such as wind, ethanol and biodiesel.
Protecting North Dakota's citizens and communities has been an important focus of many of Hoeven's policies and initiatives, including the introduction of new laws to strengthen the state's violent and sexual offender statutes, and the expansion of North Dakota's efforts to combat substance abuse, while helping young people involved with drugs through rehabilitative programs such as North Dakota's Drug Courts.
Hoeven chairs the Governors' Biofuels Coalition and serves on the Executive Committee of the National Governors Association. He previously served as chair of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, the Midwestern Governors Association, and the National Governors Association's Health and Human Services Committee and Natural Resources Committee.
Born in Bismarck, North Dakota, Hoeven earned a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College in 1979 and a master's degree in business administration from Northwestern University in 1981. He served as executive vice president of First Western Bank in Minot from 1986 to 1993, and from 1993 to 2000, served as president and CEO of the Bank of North Dakota, during which time the bank's assets grew from $900 million to $1.6 billion.
Hoeven and his wife Mical (Mikey) have two children, Marcela and Jack.