Christine Todd Whitman
Former New Jersey Governor
Christine Todd Whitman is the president of The Whitman Strategy Group (WSG), a consulting firm that specializes in energy and environmental issues. WSG offers a comprehensive set of solutions to problems facing businesses, organizations and governments; they have been at the forefront of helping leading companies find innovative solutions to environmental challenges.
Whitman served in the cabinet of President George W. Bush as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from January of 2001 until June of 2003. She was the 50th Governor of the State of New Jersey, serving as its first woman governor from 1994 until 2001.
As Governor, Whitman earned praise from both Republicans and Democrats for her commitment to preserve a record amount of New Jersey land as permanent green space. She was also recognized by the Natural Resources Defense Council as having instituted the most comprehensive beach monitoring system in the nation. As EPA Administrator, she promoted common-sense environmental improvements such as watershed-based water protection policies. She championed regulations requiring non-road diesel engines to reduce sulfur emissions by more than 95 percent. Under her tenure, the Agency established the first federal program to promote redevelopment and reuse of "brownfields”, that is, previously contaminated industrial sites.
She was also co-chair of the Republican Leadership Council (RLC), which she founded with Senator John Danforth. The RLC’s mission was to support fiscally conservative, socially tolerant candidates and to reclaim the word Republican. She is the author of a New York Times best seller, It’s My Party Too, which was published in January of 2005 and released in paperback in March 2006.
Whitman serves on a number of non-profit organizations including the Board of Trustees’ Executive Committee of the Eisenhower Fellowships and the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations. She co-chairs Clean and Safe Energy (CASE) with Dr. Patrick Moore and is a member of the board of directors of the American Security Project and Americans Elect. She is co-chair of the Aspen Health Stewardship Project, and a member of the advisory board of Reform New Jersey Now. She was also the co-chair for the Council on Foreign Relations’ Task Force, More Than Humanitarianism: A Strategic U.S. Approach Toward Africa.
Whitman also serves on the Board of Directors of S.C. Johnson and Son, Inc., Texas Instruments Inc. and United Technologies Corporation. She holds an Advanced Professional Director Certification from the American College of Corporate Directors, and she serves as an advisor to the Aspen Rodel Fellowship program. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Corporate Eco Forum, and she serves as a visiting lecturer at colleges around the country through the Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellows program. She serves on the O’Connor Judicial Selection Advisory Committee at the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System, and she is a board member for the 2014 NY/NJ Super Bowl Host Committee.
Prior to becoming Governor, she was the president of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities and served on the Somerset County board of Chosen Freeholders.
Whitman holds a BA from Wheaton College in Norton, MA, and is married to John R. Whitman. They have two children and three grandchildren.
