68 Facts About Rick Snyder

1.

Richard Dale Snyder was born on August 19,1958 and is an American business executive, venture capitalist, attorney, accountant, and politician who served as the 48th governor of Michigan from 2011 to 2019.

2.

Rick Snyder co-founded Ardesta, LLC, a venture capital firm, HealthMedia, Inc.

3.

Rick Snyder was considered a possible Republican Party candidate for Vice President of the United States in 2012, although ultimately Paul Ryan was selected.

4.

On February 3,2014, Rick Snyder announced his candidacy for re-election as Governor of Michigan in 2014.

5.

Rick Snyder was elected to a second term in the November 2014 vote, defeating his major challenger, Democrat Mark Schauer.

6.

Rick Snyder was term-limited and could not seek re-election in 2018.

7.

Rick Snyder was succeeded on New Year's Day of 2019 by Democrat Gretchen Whitmer.

8.

Rick Snyder gained national attention during the Flint water crisis, in which he was accused of mishandling the situation that exposed 6,000 to 12,000 Flint children to lead.

9.

In January 2021, Rick Snyder was among those charged for his role in the crisis.

10.

At the ongoing trial, Rick Snyder pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanor charges.

11.

Rick Snyder's father owned a local window-cleaning company in Battle Creek, and was of paternal Dutch descent.

12.

Rick Snyder visited the admissions office of the University of Michigan in November 1975 and spoke with the admissions director, who recommended that Rick Snyder attend Michigan and create his own degree.

13.

Rick Snyder received a Bachelor of General Studies in 1977, a Master of Business Administration in 1979, and a Juris Doctor in 1982, all from the University of Michigan.

14.

The next year, Rick Snyder was named partner-in-charge of the mergers and acquisitions practice in the Chicago office.

15.

Rick Snyder served as an adjunct assistant professor of accounting at the University of Michigan from 1982 to 1984.

16.

Rick Snyder joined the computer company Gateway in 1991 as the executive vice president.

17.

Rick Snyder served as president and chief operating officer from 1996 to 1997.

18.

Rick Snyder remained on the board of directors until 2007.

19.

From 2005 to 2007, Rick Snyder served as the chairman of the board.

20.

Rick Snyder's tenure on the Gateway board ran from 1991 to 2007 until Gateway was sold to Acer Inc Snyder stated that he did not vote for outsourcing while he was a Gateway board director and he worked to bring jobs to America as the interim CEO of Gateway.

21.

In 1997, Rick Snyder returned to Ann Arbor to found Avalon Investments Inc.

22.

Rick Snyder was president and chief executive officer of Avalon from 1997 to 2000.

23.

Rick Snyder then co-founded Ardesta LLC, an investment firm, in 2000 along with three co-founders, which invested in 20 start-up companies through 2011.

24.

Rick Snyder was chairman and chief executive officer of the company.

25.

In 1998, Rick Snyder angel funded and co-founded, with University of Michigan School of Public Health professor Victor Strecher, Ph.

26.

In July, 2022, Rick Snyder co-founded SensCy along with former State of Michigan CIO David Behen Ann Arbor entrepreneur Bhushan Kulkarni, and Dave Kelly who led cyber command for the Michigan State Police.

27.

Rick Snyder's firm invented the SensCy Score, a numeric representation of an organization's cyberhealth.

28.

Rick Snyder serves on the boards of the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, the Michigan chapter of the Nature Conservancy, and several boards associated with his alma mater the University of Michigan.

29.

Rick Snyder was first chair of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation in 1999 under Republican governor John Engler and was the chair of Ann Arbor SPARK.

30.

Rick Snyder competed with Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard, state Senator Tom George, United States Congressman Peter Hoekstra, and Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox as candidates for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

31.

Rick Snyder campaigned as "pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, [and] pro-family," with a focus on the economy.

32.

Rick Snyder's campaign emphasized his experience in growing business and creating jobs in the private sector, saying that his opponents were mainly career politicians.

33.

Rick Snyder was the first Certified Public Accountant to be elected governor of the state and at the time, the only CPA to serve as a governor in the United States.

34.

In January 2014, Rick Snyder launched his campaign for a second term as governor.

35.

Rick Snyder was unopposed in the Republican primary and faced Democratic former United States Representative Mark Schauer for the general election.

36.

Rick Snyder was considered vulnerable in his bid for a second term, as reflected in his low approval ratings Schauer suffered from a lack of name recognition.

37.

Rick Snyder was inaugurated as governor on January 1,2011, at the Capitol in Lansing.

38.

On January 7,2011, Snyder announced he was appointing Michigan Supreme Court Justice Maura D Corrigan to head the Department of Human Services and appointed Michigan Appeals Court Judge Brian K Zahra to fill the resulting Supreme Court vacancy.

39.

Rick Snyder delivered his first State of the State address on January 19, the earliest Michigan State of the State since Governor John Engler's 1996 address on January 17.

40.

Rick Snyder endorsed the Detroit River International Crossing for the first time publicly in the address, which was received favorably by Republicans.

41.

Rick Snyder appointed Andy Dillon, a pro-life Democrat, and formerly Speaker of the House, to serve as state treasurer in his administration.

42.

Rick Snyder presented his first budget to the legislature on February 17,2011, calling it a plan for "Michigan's reinvention," and saying it would end Michigan's deficits.

43.

Rick Snyder described the budget as containing "shared sacrifice" but added that his budget plan would create jobs and spur economic growth.

44.

On March 16,2011, Rick Snyder signed a controversial bill into law that gave increased powers to emergency managers of local municipalities to resolve financial matters.

45.

However, weeks later in December 2012 Rick Snyder signed a revised version of the bill back into law.

46.

On December 22,2011, Rick Snyder signed into law The Public Employee Domestic Partner Benefit Restriction Act, which prevents the same-sex domestic partners of public employees at both the state and local level from receiving health benefits.

47.

Rick Snyder has engaged in trade missions to Europe and Asia, focused on attracting attention on companies such as Chrysler.

48.

In May 2012, Rick Snyder joined a bipartisan effort urging the US Congress to pass a measure to affirm that States can collect sales taxes on online purchases.

49.

For years Rick Snyder had said anti-union legislation was not on his agenda, when on the morning of December 6,2012, during a lame duck session of the Republican-controlled Michigan legislature, Rick Snyder called a joint press conference with the legislative leadership to announce fast-track right-to-work legislation.

50.

Rick Snyder was briefly mentioned as a possible pick to be the Republican Party candidate for Vice President of the United States in 2012.

51.

Rick Snyder was mentioned as a potential Republican Party candidate for President of the United States in 2016.

52.

In December 2012, Rick Snyder signed legislation requiring facilities where at least 120 abortions were performed annually to obtain a state license as freestanding surgical facilities.

53.

In January 2013, Rick Snyder traveled to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

54.

Rick Snyder was last in Israel in 1999 as a venture capitalist.

55.

In March 2013, Rick Snyder announced a financial emergency for the city of Detroit and appointed an emergency manager, Kevyn Orr.

56.

On December 27,2013, Rick Snyder signed a bill into law which nullified Section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, which contained a controversial provision that allowed the government and the military to indefinitely detain American citizens and others without trial.

57.

On January 23,2014, Rick Snyder announced plans to offer visas to 50,000 immigrant workers with advanced degrees to help jumpstart the Detroit economy.

58.

In June 2014, Rick Snyder appointed a 15-member commission for improving and reforming Michigan's public defense efforts for the poor in the criminal justice system in order to effectively meet and ensure the rights safeguarded by the Constitution.

59.

In November 2015, Governor Rick Snyder declared his opposition to permitting Syrian refugee relocation to the state of Michigan.

60.

In December 2018, Rick Snyder granted clemency to 61 Michigan prisoners.

61.

From 2011 to 2015, Rick Snyder appointed several individuals as Emergency Managers for Flint, Michigan.

62.

Rick Snyder declared a State of Emergency on January 5,2016, for Genesee County, Michigan.

63.

On January 16,2016, Rick Snyder requested that the federal government declare a state of emergency in Flint.

64.

In mid-April 2016, Rick Snyder initiated his own 30-Day Flint Challenge.

65.

Rick Snyder was charged with two misdemeanors of willful neglect but he pleaded not guilty to the charges.

66.

Just before leaving the governor's office, Rick Snyder formed a new Ann Arbor based company called RPAction LLC whose staff consists of former officials of the Rick Snyder administration.

67.

On June 29,2019, Rick Snyder accepted a soon-to-be appointment at Harvard to share his knowledge of state and local government.

68.

Rick Snyder ignores the truth" and that the president " demonstrated that he does not fully appreciate policy matters, including public health, the economy and foreign relations, nor does he seem to want to learn.