Robert Vincent Stefanowski (born May 21, 1962) is an American businessman and politician. Born and raised in

North Haven, Connecticut North Haven is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States on the outskirts of New Haven. The town is part of the South Central Connecticut Planning Region. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 24,253. North Haven is home ...

, he is a former business executive of

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

, 3i Group plc,

UBS UBS Group AG (stylized simply as UBS) is a multinational investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland, with headquarters in both Zurich and Basel. It holds a strong foothold in all major financial centres as the ...

, and Dollar Financial Group. He resides in

Madison, Connecticut Madison is a New England town, town in the southeastern corner of New Haven County, Connecticut, New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, occupying a central location on Connecticut's Long Island Sound shoreline. The town is part of the South ...

. 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 U.S. state, state's Connecticut Military Department, military forces. The Governor (United States), governor has a duty to enforce state laws, ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

and

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

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, Connecticut, West Haven, about 1½ miles (2½ km) west of the main campus of Yale University. The ...

. Stefanowski graduated from North Haven High School in 1980. He earned a B.S. in

accounting Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the process of recording and processing information about economic entity, economic entities, such as businesses and corporations. Accounting measures the results of an organization's economic activit ...

from

Fairfield University Fairfield University is a private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit university in Fairfield, Connecticut. It was founded by the Jesuits in 1942. In 2023, the university had about 5,000 full-time undergraduate students and 1,200 gra ...

in 1984 and an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

in 1992. Stefanowski began as an auditor in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

for

PricewaterhouseCoopers PricewaterhouseCoopers, also known as PwC, is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, alon ...

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 was the financial services division of General Electric. Its various units were sold between 2013 and 2021, including the notable spin-off of the North American consumer finance division as Synchrony Financial. Ultimately, only one div ...

headquarters in

Norwalk, Connecticut Norwalk is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The city, part of the New York metropolitan area, New York Metropolitan Area, is the List of municipalities of Connecticut by population, sixth-most populous city in Connecticut ...

. From 2008 to 2011, Stefanowski was chairman and managing partner of 3i Group plc in

London, England London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. He then served as chief financial officer of

, where he restructured the Investment Bank to meet

Basel III Basel III is the third of three Basel Accords, a framework that sets international standards and minimums for bank capital requirements, Stress test (financial), stress tests, liquidity regulations, and Leverage (finance), leverage, with the goa ...

regulatory requirements. From 2014 to 2017 he served as CEO of Dollar Financial Group in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. 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 International tax law distinguishes between an estate tax and an inheritance 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 pr ...

, 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 The Taxpayer Bill of Rights (abbreviated TABOR) is a concept advocated by conservative and free market libertarian groups, primarily in the United States, as a way of limiting the growth of government. It is not a charter of rights but a provisi ...

. Stefanowski's tax-cut proposals were backed by Republican economic commentators

Arthur Laffer Arthur Betz Laffer (; born August 14, 1940) is an American Economics, economist and author who first gained prominence during the Presidency of Ronald Reagan, Reagan administration as a member of Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board (1981–19 ...

and Larry Kudlow. 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 Media may refer to: Communication * Means of communication, tools and channels used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Interactive media, media that is inte ...

; 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. In Ju ...

, 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. In 1974, following the Watergate scandal, the U.S. Congress revised the Federal Elec ...

. ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' 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. A Republican Party (United States), Republican, he represented the Connecticut's 13th State Senate district, 13th district in the Connecticut State Senate fr ...

, 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 Mayor Mark Lauretti. At the May 2018 state Republican convention at

Foxwoods Resort Casino Foxwoods Resort Casino is an integrated resort owned and operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation on their Indian reservation, reservation located in Ledyard, Connecticut. Including six casinos, the resort covers an area of . The casino ...

Mashantucket, Connecticut Mashantucket is a census-designated place (CDP) in the northeastern 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 Re ...

, the party endorsed Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton; 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 is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

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 since 2019 as the 89th governor of Connecticut. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as a Greenwich, Con ...

2022 campaign for governor

On January 19, 2022, Stefanowski declared his intent to run for

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

again in the 2022 election. He won the Republican nomination at convention on May 6, 2022, with Laura Devlin selected as his running mate. In the November 2022, general election, Stefanowski was defeated by Democrat Ned Lamont again in a rematch by a larger 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,

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 degree, Master's degrees in management and finance, Master of B ...

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, and as a visiting professor of management practice at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

. 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 Stat ...

(CPA) and

Chartered Financial Analyst The Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program is a postgraduate professional certification offered internationally by the US-based CFA Institute (formerly the Association for Investment Management and Research, or AIMR) to investment and financia ...

(CFA).

References

External links

Campaign website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stefanowski, Bob 1962 births 21st-century American businesspeople 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 PwC people American chief executives CFA charterholders