Eric Robert Greitens (born April 10, 1974) is an American politician, author, and former Navy SEAL currently serving as the 56th Governor of Missouri, since January 2017. He is currently the second youngest Governor in the United States, after New Hampshire's Chris Sununu.
Born and raised in St. Louis, Greitens graduated from Parkway North High School before attending Duke University with a scholarship. After attending the University of Oxford as a Rhodes scholar and earning a doctorate, he later became a U.S. Navy SEAL officer, where he served four tours of duty around the world, rose to the rank of lieutenant commander, commanded an Al-Qaeda targeting cell and was awarded a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart, among other decorations. Following his military service, Greitens founded The Mission Continues, a non-profit organization serving veterans which he led until 2014. Time Magazine included him in its list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2013.
Previously a Democrat, he announced his candidacy for governor as a Republican, campaigning on a platform centered around ethics reform.
After winning the Republican primaries, he faced state Attorney General Chris Koster whom he defeated in the general election on November 8, 2016.
Maps, Directions, and Place Reviews
Early life
Greitens was born on April 10, 1974, in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Becky and Rob Greitens. He is Jewish.
Greitens attended Parkway North High School and was named a member of the 1995 USA Today All-USA Academic Team. Greitens was an Angier B. Duke Scholar at Duke University where he studied ethics, philosophy, and public policy.
Before graduating in 1996, he was selected as a Rhodes and Truman Scholar. He attended Lady Margaret Hall, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, where he earned a D.Phil. in refugee studies in 2000. Some of his photographs appear in the publication Children in War: Community Strategies for Healing.
Greitens is a former Senior Fellow at the Harry S. Truman School of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri. In the past, he has taught classes at both the University of Missouri in Columbia and at Washington University in St. Louis.
Career
Armed services
Greitens attended Naval Officer Candidate School in January 2001, after graduating from Oxford. He began Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) and graduated with Class 237 in Coronado, California in February 2002.
Greitens was a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy Reserve, and he was deployed four times to Iraq, Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa, and Southeast Asia. He served as the commander of a joint special operations task unit, commander of a Mark V Special Operations Craft detachment, and as commander of an al Qaeda targeting cell. Some of his personal military awards include the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Joint Service Commendation Medal, Navy Commendation Medal, Joint Service Achievement Medal, Navy Achievement Medal, the Combat Action Ribbon, and the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal.
White House Fellowship
In 2005, he was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as a White House Fellow. As a White House Fellow, Greitens worked in the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and developed a new program to assist with the rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Katrina. The program, called the Universities Rebuilding America Partnership (URAP), was a $5.6 million effort to engage architecture and engineering students in the continued effort to rebuild New Orleans. During his time as a White House Fellow, he co-founded the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll Program.
The Mission Continues
After returning from Iraq, Greitens used his combat pay and the disability pay of two friends to start The Mission Continues. The mission of the organization is to "challenge veterans to serve and lead in communities across America." It encourages veterans to heal themselves through public service by engaging in volunteer organizations across the country. In 2014 the organization won the CLASSY Award, recognizing its effectiveness in active-duty and veteran services. He stepped down as CEO in July 2014. He resigned the board of directors in 2015.
As CEO of The Mission Continues, Greitens worked without a salary from 2007-08. Later, Greitens received compensation of between $150,000 and $200,000. Daniel Borochoff, president and founder of CharityWatch (which evaluates nonprofit organizations) remarked that Greitens' wages "seem within a reasonable range" while the AP reported that his salary was about one-third higher than the $131,000 median compensation for chief executives of 237 medium-sized charities in the Midwest.
Author
Strength and Compassion is a collection of photographs and essays by Greitens. Published in 2008; it is Greitens' first book, with a foreword by Rwandan humanitarian Paul Rusesabagina and an introduction by Bobby Muller, co-founder of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.
Greitens' second book, The Heart and the Fist: The Education of a Humanitarian, the Making of a Navy SEAL, was published on April 11, 2011, by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
The Heart and the Fist is Greitens' memoir of service, featuring stories of his humanitarian work, his training as a naval officer and SEAL and the military experiences that led him to adopt the paradoxical philosophy that you have to be strong to do good, but you also have to do good to be strong. The book was ranked 10th on the New York Times bestseller list for hard-cover nonfiction in May 2011, debuting on the St. Louis Independent Bookstore Alliance Best Sellers list at No. 1 for the week of April 17, 2011. The following year, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt also released a young adult edition of The Heart and the Fist, titled The Warrior's Heart.
In March 2015, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt released Greitens' book Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life. It draws on letters Greitens wrote to a fellow SEAL struggling with PTSD.
As an author and former SEAL, Greitens is represented by the speakers' bureau Leading Authorities. In 2016, an anonymous political attack group charged in a YouTube video that Greitens had exaggerated his record and was unduly benefiting from his time in the SEALs; Greitens later debunked the claims in a video he uploaded to his channel.
Governor of Missouri
2016 election
On September 26, 2015, Greitens officially announced his candidacy for Governor of Missouri as a Republican.
Greitens won the August 2 Republican primary with 236,250 votes (34.6%), defeating businessman John Brunner's 169,425 (24.8%), Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder's 141,498 (20.7%), and former Speaker Catherine Hanaway's 136,350 (19.9%). Democrat-turned-Republican Greitens faced Republican-turned-Democrat Chris Koster in the general election on November 8, 2016, and won with 51.3% of the vote to Koster's 45.4%.
Tenure
Greitens assumed office as governor on January 9, 2017. His first two executive orders banned employees in the executive branch from accepting gifts from lobbyists and froze all new regulations through February 2017. He remained opposed to accepting a federal Medicaid expansion in Missouri.
On February 6, 2017, Greitens signed a bill into law making Missouri the 28th right-to-work state. In response, unions, who opposed the law, filed a referendum to overturn the law for 2018.
On March 12, 2017, the St. Louis Post Dispatch and The Kansas City Star editorial boards published a joint editorial criticizing the governor for "secret fundraising and secret spending" and for tactics such as employing "[s]ecurity staffers block reporters from getting close to him."
On April 28, 2017, the Missouri Ethics Commission fined Greitens' campaign $1,000 for violating state campaign ethics rules regarding campaign disclosure. Greitens did not contest the fine.
On 22 August 2017, Greitens granted a stay of execution to Marcellus Williams, who had been set to be executed that day. DNA tests, using technology unavailable at the time of the killing, on the knife used in the killing matched an unknown male, not Williams. Greitens said that he would appoint a board of inquiry to investigate the case.
Personal life
Greitens married Sheena Elise Chestnut on August 7, 2011, in Spokane, Washington. They had lived in St. Louis, with their two sons Joshua and Jacob.
Honors and awards
On October 3, 2008, President George W. Bush personally awarded Greitens the President's Volunteer Service Award outside Air Force One at Lambert International Airport in St. Louis, Missouri, for his work at The Mission Continues.
Greitens was honored with the HOOAH Award, commissioned by the Major George A. Smith Memorial Fund in 2009. He was also named the 2010 Reader of the Year by Outside magazine.
In June 2010, Major League Baseball and People Magazine announced Greitens as a winner in People Magazine's All-Stars Among Us competition. He was selected to represent the city of St. Louis and the Cardinals at the 2010 All-Star Game in Anaheim, California.
On May 20, 2012, Greitens was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Tufts University when he gave the commencement speech at the school's 156th commencement. That same year, he received the Bronfman Prize, which recognizes dynamic leaders whose innovation and impact serve as inspiration for the next generations.
In 2014, Fortune Magazine featured Greitens as one of the World's 50 Greatest Leaders. On April 18, 2013, Time Magazine named Greitens to its 2013 one hundred Most Influential People in the World.
Greitens has appeared on NBC Nightly News, the Today Show, the Colbert Report, and The Daily Show.
Publications
- Greitens, Eric (2008). Strength & Compassion: Photographs and Essays. Leading Authorities Press. ISBN 978-0971007802.
- Greitens, Eric (2011). The Heart and the Fist: The Education of a Humanitarian, the Making of a Navy SEAL. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0547424859.
- Greitens, Eric (2012). The Warrior's Heart: Becoming a Man of Compassion and Courage. HMH Books for Young Readers. ISBN 978-0547868523.
- Greitens, Eric (2015). Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0544323988.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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