Robert Vincent Stefanowski (born May 21, 1962) is an American business executive and politician.
Born and raised in
North Haven, Connecticut
North Haven is a New England town, town in New Haven County, Connecticut, New Haven County, Connecticut on the outskirts of New Haven, Connecticut, New Haven, Connecticut. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, it had a population of 24, ...
, he is a former business executive of
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...
,
3i Group plc,
UBS
UBS Group AG is a multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company founded and based in Switzerland. Co-headquartered in the cities of Zürich and Basel, it maintains a presence in all major financial centres ...
, and
Dollar Financial Group
Money Mart Financial Services, formerly Dollar Financial Group, is a financial services company with over 600 locations in Canada and the U.S. The company offers a range of financial services, including installment loan, cash advance/payday loan, ...
. He resides in
Madison, Connecticut
Madison is a town in the southeastern corner of New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, occupying a central location on Connecticut's Long Island Sound shoreline. The population was 17,691 at the 2020 census.
Madison was first settled in 16 ...
.
Stefanowski was the
Republican Party nominee for
Governor of Connecticut
The governor of Connecticut is the head of government of Connecticut, and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has a duty to enforce state laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Connecticu ...
in
2018
File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...
and
2022
File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...
, losing both times to Democrat
Ned Lamont
Edward Miner Lamont Jr. (born January 3, 1954) is an American businessman and politician serving as the 89th governor of Connecticut. He has served in this position since January 9, 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a Greenwi ...
.
Early life
Stefanowski's father, Bob Stefanowski, was the scoreboard assistant for the
Yale Bowl
The Yale Bowl Stadium is a college football stadium in the northeast United States, located in New Haven, Connecticut, on the border of West Haven, about 1½ miles (2½ km) west of the main campus of Yale University. The home of the American footb ...
. Stefanowski graduated from
North Haven High School in 1980. He earned a
B.S.
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...
in
accounting
Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, which has been called the "languag ...
from
Fairfield University
Fairfield University is a private Jesuit university in Fairfield, Connecticut. It was founded by the Jesuits in 1942. In 2017, the university had about 4,100 full-time undergraduate students and 1,100 graduate students, including full-time ...
in 1984 and an
MBA
A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...
from
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
in 1992.
Stefanowski began as an auditor in
Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...
for
PricewaterhouseCoopers
PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting ...
after graduating from Fairfield University.
Business career
Stefanowski's tenure at General Electric began in 1994 where he held multiple senior roles through 2007.
In 2003, Stefanowski became president and CEO of GE Commercial & Industrial Finance and then proceeded in 2004–2005 to serve as president and CEO of GE Telecom, Media & Technology Finance. Stefanowski worked at the
GE Capital
GE Capital is the financial services division of General Electric.
The company currently only runs one division, GE Energy Financial Services. It had provided additional services in the past; however, those units were sold between 2013 and 2018 ...
headquarters in
Norwalk, Connecticut
, image_map = Fairfield County Connecticut incorporated and unincorporated areas Norwalk highlighted.svg
, mapsize = 230px
, map_caption = Location in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Fairfield County and ...
.
From 2008 to 2011, Stefanowski was chairman and managing partner of
3i Group plc in
London, England
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...
. He then served as chief financial officer of
UBS
UBS Group AG is a multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company founded and based in Switzerland. Co-headquartered in the cities of Zürich and Basel, it maintains a presence in all major financial centres ...
, where he restructured the Investment Bank to meet
Basel III
Basel III is the third Basel Accord, a framework that sets international standards for bank capital adequacy, stress testing, and liquidity requirements. Augmenting and superseding parts of the Basel II standards, it was developed in response to ...
regulatory requirements.
From 2014 to 2017 he served as CEO of
Dollar Financial Group
Money Mart Financial Services, formerly Dollar Financial Group, is a financial services company with over 600 locations in Canada and the U.S. The company offers a range of financial services, including installment loan, cash advance/payday loan, ...
in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
and
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
.
From early 2019 to present, Stefanowski has been employed by and in senior leadership and decision-making positions with Neom, a controversial planned futuristic development in the northwest of Saudi Arabia totally owned by the Saudi Government Wealth Fund, PIF.
Political career
2018 campaign for governor
In September 2017, Stefanowski announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for governor of Connecticut in 2018.
He campaigned on phasing out the state income tax,
corporate income tax, reducing business entity taxes, and eliminating the
gift tax
In economics, a gift tax is the tax on money or property that one living person or corporate entity gives to another. A gift tax is a type of transfer tax that is imposed when someone gives something of value to someone else. The transfer must ...
and the
estate tax
An inheritance tax is a tax paid by a person who inherits money or property of a person who has died, whereas an estate tax is a levy on the estate (money and property) of a person who has died.
International tax law distinguishes between an es ...
, in addition to using
zero-based budgeting
Zero-based budgeting (ZBB) is a budgeting method that requires all expenses to be justified and approved in each new budget period. It was developed by Peter Pyhrr in the 1970s. This budgeting method analyzes an organization's needs and costs by ...
and creating a
Taxpayer Bill of Rights.
Stefanowski's tax-cut proposals were backed by Republican economic commentators
Arthur Laffer
Arthur Betz Laffer (; born August 14, 1940) is an American economist and author who first gained prominence during the Reagan administration as a member of Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board (1981–1989). Laffer is best known for the Laf ...
and
Larry Kudlow
Lawrence Alan Kudlow (born August 20, 1947) is an American conservative television personality and financial program host for the Fox network who served as the Director of the National Economic Council during the Trump Administration from 2018 ...
. During his campaign, Stefanowski pledged to oppose further gun-control measures in Connecticut.
His campaign ran television commercials, beginning in January 2018, in the Hartford-New Haven and New York
media markets; his ads criticized
Democratic Governor
Dannel P. Malloy
Dannel Patrick Malloy (; born July 21, 1955) is an American politician, who served as the 88th governor of Connecticut from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he chaired the Democratic Governors Association from 2016 to 2017. On July ...
, promoting Stefanowski's economic proposals (co-authored with Laffer) and criticizing Malloy's acceptance of
publicly funded elections
A publicly funded election is an election funded with money collected through income tax donations or taxes as opposed to private or corporate funded campaigns. It is a policy initially instituted after Nixon for candidates to opt into publicly f ...
. ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' reported that Stefanowski funded his campaign with a combination of fundraising and his own money, but that he had declined to state how much of his own money he would spend.
He received endorsements from former Republican competitor Peter Lumaj, state representative
Noreen Kokoruda, state senator
Len Suzio
Leonard F. Suzio Jr. (born January 4, 1948) is an American politician from Connecticut.
Personal life
Suzio attended the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Shortly after graduation, he married Kathryn. Suzio was active in the C ...
, former
U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker,
Middletown Planning and Zoning Commissioner Tyrell Brown, Middletown Board of Education member Edward Ford, Jr., and
Shelton Shelton may refer to:
Places
United Kingdom
*Shelton, North Bedfordshire, in the parish of Dean and Shelton, Bedfordshire
*Lower Shelton, in the parish of Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire
*Upper Shelton, in the parish of Marston Moretaine, Bedfor ...
Mayor Mark Lauretti.
At the May 2018 state Republican convention at
Foxwoods Resort Casino
Foxwoods Resort Casino is a hotel and casino complex owned and operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation on their reservation located in Ledyard, Connecticut. Including six casinos, the resort covers an area of . The casinos have more t ...
in
Mashantucket, Connecticut
Mashantucket is a census-designated place (CDP) in the northeast part of the town of Ledyard, New London County, Connecticut, United States. It consists of land held by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe. The Foxwoods Resort Casino
Foxwoods Resort ...
, the party endorsed
Danbury
Danbury is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located approximately northeast of New York City. Danbury's population as of 2022 was 87,642. It is the seventh largest city in Connecticut.
Danbury is nicknamed the "Hat City ...
Mayor
Mark Boughton
Mark D. Boughton (born February 20, 1964) is an American politician who was the longest-serving mayor in Danbury, Connecticut's history. He served ten consecutive terms as mayor, from 2001 to 2020. He was the Republican endorsed candidate for g ...
; Stefanowski attended the convention but bypassed the formal vote, opting not to place his name into nomination.
Stefanowski secured a spot on the Republican primary ballot by collecting the requisite number of signatures.
In August 2018 primary, Stefanowski won the Republican nomination, receiving 29.4% of the vote, surpassing Boughton (21.3%), David Stemerman (18.3%), Tim Herbst (17.6%), and Steve Obsitnik (13.4%).
Following Stefanowski's nomination, on August 15, 2018,
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
endorsed the campaign.
In the November 2018, general election, Stefanowski was narrowly defeated by Democrat
Ned Lamont
Edward Miner Lamont Jr. (born January 3, 1954) is an American businessman and politician serving as the 89th governor of Connecticut. He has served in this position since January 9, 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a Greenwi ...
.
2022 campaign for governor
On January 19, 2022, Stefanowski declared his intent to run for
governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
again in the 2022 election. He won the Republican nomination at convention on May 6, 2022, with
Laura Devlin selected as his running mate. On November 8, 2022, Stefanowski lost the general election to incumbent Governor Ned Lamont in a rematch of their 2018 race, this time with a 13% margin.
Electoral history
Personal life
Stefanowski lives in Madison with his wife, Amy, and his three daughters.
His first book ''Making M&A Deals Happen'' was published by
McGraw Hill Publishing in February 2007. He is a
Wharton Fellow, and has served as adjunct faculty to
NYU Stern
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
,
London Business School
London Business School (LBS) is a business school and a constituent college of the federal University of London. LBS was founded in 1964 and awards post-graduate degrees (Master's degrees in management and finance, MBA and PhD). Its motto is " ...
,
Cambridge University
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
, and as a visiting professor of management practice at
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
.
Stefanowski is a
Certified Public Accountant
Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is the title of qualified accountants in numerous countries in the English-speaking world. It is generally equivalent to the title of chartered accountant in other English-speaking countries. In the United Sta ...
(CPA) and
Chartered Financial Analyst
The Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program is a postgraduate professional certification offered internationally by the American-based CFA Institute (formerly the Association for Investment Management and Research, or AIMR) to investment and fina ...
(CFA).
See also
*
2018 United States gubernatorial elections
*
2018 Connecticut gubernatorial election
*
2022 United States gubernatorial elections
*
2022 Connecticut gubernatorial election
References
External links
Campaign website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stefanowski, Bob
1962 births
21st-century American businesspeople
21st-century American politicians
3i Group people
American people of Polish descent
Businesspeople from Connecticut
Candidates in the 2018 United States elections
Connecticut Republicans
Cornell University alumni
Fairfield University alumni
General Electric people
Living people
People from North Haven, Connecticut
PricewaterhouseCoopers people
American chief executives
CFA charterholders