Pawlenty Campaign Press Release - Pawlenty for President Campaign Announces Iowa Campaign Co-Chairs

Gov. Tim Pawlenty announced today that Ames businessman Roger Underwood and Cedar Rapids entrepreneur and former gubernatorial candidate Christian Fong will serve as co-chairs of his Iowa campaign committee.

Fong was a candidate for the 2010 GOP gubernatorial nomination, attracting a broad coalition of pro-growth and pro-family Republican support. Following his campaign, Fong built The Iowa Dream Project, where he helped increase the 2010 voter turnout of the conservatives of Generation X and the Millennials by over 5 percent. Fong remains an active member of Iowa's business and political communities, and serves on the boards of various state and local organizations involving economic development, faith and the arts. He has been the managing Partner of Fong Strategic Consulting since July 2009, where he serves clients in the financial services sector and commercial real estate. Fong previously served as the Head of Capital Markets for AEGON USA, as CEO at the disaster relief agency Corridor Recovery and has an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.

"Iowans want get-it-done leaders who tell the truth with gentleness and stand firm when the political winds are blowing. Tim Pawlenty is that sort of strong leader. As governor, he guided Minnesota's dynamic job and wage growth and reversed the damage caused by big-government spending," Fong said. "He has been a champion of the family, both as a public official and in his own home. He will bring Midwestern values and pro-growth policies to the White House and restore America's greatness for the next generation."

Underwood is a co-founder and executive advisor at Rural American Fund, a private equity firm that focuses on investments in growing middle-market rural firms. After graduating from Iowa State University, Underwood co-founded Becker Underwood in Ames in 1982. The firm has grown into the world's leading supplier of non-pesticide specialty chemical and biological products with annual sales of more than $180 million. It sells products to the agricultural, seed and turf industries in 54 countries from nine facilities in seven countries on four continents, giving it a global perspective with a local presence. Underwood is a current and former member of numerous corporate and organizational boards of directors, including the ISU Board of Governors.