Taggart Mitt Romney (born March 21, 1970) is an American management consultant, businessman,
venture capital
Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to start-up company, startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth poten ...
ist and political advisor. He is the eldest son of businessman and
U.S. Senator Mitt Romney.
Early life and education
Taggart Romney is the oldest son of
Ann and Mitt Romney, born when both were undergraduates at
Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d ...
(BYU) in Tagg's birthplace of
Provo, Utah.
He attended
Belmont Hill School, a preparatory academy before he graduated ''
magna cum laude'' with a
BA in economics from BYU and earned 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 the
Harvard Business School.
Career
Romney has worked as the head of marketing for the
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...
,
VP of onfield marketing at
Reebok
Reebok International Limited () is an American fitness footwear and clothing manufacturer that is a part of Authentic Brands Group. It was established in England in 1958 as a companion company to J.W. Foster and Sons, a sporting goods company ...
, and director of strategic planning at
Elan Pharmaceuticals. Romney founded and subsequently sold Season Perks,
a software design company. He also worked for several years as a consultant at both
Monitor Group
Monitor Deloitte is the multinational strategy consulting practice of Deloitte Consulting. Monitor Deloitte specializes in providing strategy consultation services to the senior management of major organizations and governments. It helps its clie ...
and
McKinsey and Co.
Romney has been a partner in the
private equity firm
A private equity firm is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of startup or operating companies through a variety of loosely affiliated investment strategies including lev ...
Solamere Capital, together with family friend Spencer Zwick, and Eric Scheuermann, previously a partner in
New York-based Jupiter Partners. Zwick was also finance chair of the 2012 campaign.
[ Romney worked as a senior aide on his father's presidential campaign in 2008 and during his Massachusetts gubernatorial campaign in 2002. He participated as an advisor in his father's 2012 presidential campaign and he attracted the attention of the media just prior to the November election.]
In June 2014, Solamere sponsored the third annual "Romney Retreat" at the Stein Eriksen Lodge in Park City, Utah
Park City is a city in Utah, United States. The vast majority is in Summit County, and it extends into Wasatch County. It is considered to be part of the Wasatch Back. The city is southeast of downtown Salt Lake City and from Salt Lake Cit ...
. Most potential 2016 Republican Party Presidential candidates, Peyton Manning, firm clients, former Secretary of State George P. Shultz
George Pratt Shultz (; December 13, 1920February 6, 2021) was an American economist, businessman, diplomat and statesman. He served in various positions under two different Republican presidents and is one of the only two persons to have held fou ...
, and Mia Love, among others, along with Mitt Romney, spoke or were in attendance for the three-day event. Other scheduled attendees included business executives Meg Whitman
Margaret Cushing Whitman (born August 4, 1956) is the US ambassador to Kenya, an American business executive and former gubernatorial candidate for California. She is a board member of Procter & Gamble and General Motors. Whitman was previously ...
and Harold Hamm.[
He was the subject of speculation in February 2013 that he would run for the ]United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and pow ...
from Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
in the 2014 election. He declined to do so, saying that "the timing is not right for me."
2012 presidential election
After the second presidential debate, a North Carolina radio station interviewed Romney and asked him what it was like "to hear the president of the United States call your dad a liar." Romney laughed and replied: "Jump out of your seat and you want to rush down to the stage and take a swing at him. But you know you can't do that because, well, first because there's a lot of Secret Service
A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For ...
between you and him, but also because that's the nature of the process. They're gonna try to do everything they can do to try to make my dad into someone he's not. We signed up for it, we've gotta try to kind of sit there and take our punches, and then send them right back the other way."
A campaign aide told ABC News
ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...
that the remarks about taking a swing at the president were "all in jest".
HIG Capital, an investment partner of Romney's company, Solamere, supplied voting machines in the state of Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
, which caused concern prior to the November elections. A spokesperson for Solamere later commented on the matter, saying, "Not only does Solamere have no direct or indirect interest in this company Hart InterCivic Hart InterCivic Inc. is a privately held United States company that provides election technologies and services to government jurisdictions. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Hart products are used by hundreds of jurisdictions nationwide, including co ...
, Solamere and its partners have no ownership in this company, nor do they have any ownership in nor have made any investments in the fund that invested in the voting machine company."
In 2012, '' National Journal'' named Romney one of ten Republicans to follow on Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
.
Personal life
Romney and his wife, Jennifer, have six children, three via surrogate mothers. The family resides in Belmont, Massachusetts.
References
External links
*
Audio of NC radio station interview
on BuzzFeed
{{DEFAULTSORT:Romney, Taggart
1970 births
American computer businesspeople
American consulting businesspeople
American Latter Day Saints
American management consultants
American people of English descent
American people of German descent
American people of Scottish descent
American people of Welsh descent
American political consultants
American technology chief executives
American technology company founders
American venture capitalists
Businesspeople from Massachusetts
Businesspeople from Utah
Businesspeople in the pharmaceutical industry
Brigham Young University alumni
Harvard Business School alumni
Living people
Los Angeles Dodgers personnel
Massachusetts Republicans
McKinsey & Company people
Mitt Romney
People from Provo, Utah
Romney family
Utah Republicans
Belmont Hill School alumni
Latter Day Saints from Massachusetts