Rick Snyder

Richard Dale Snyder (born August 19, 1958) is an American business executive, venture capitalist, attorney, accountant, and politician who served as the 48th governor of Michigan from 2011 to 2019.

Snyder visited the admissions office of the University of Michigan in November 1975 and spoke with the admissions director, who recommended that Snyder attend Michigan and create his own degree.

Snyder received a Bachelor of General Studies in 1977, a Master of Business Administration in 1979, and a Juris Doctor in 1982, all from the University of Michigan.

Snyder is also a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

He resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan with his wife Sue and their three children and has a vacation home near Gun Lake.

Snyder, who was born in Battle Creek, Michigan, began his career in business in 1982.

Snyder was employed with Coopers & Lybrand, from 1982 to 1991, beginning in the tax department of the Detroit office.

He served as an adjunct assistant professor of accounting at the University of Michigan from 1982 to 1984.

The couple were married in 1987 at Cherry Hill Presbyterian Church in Dearborn, Michigan.

Snyder has indicated he is a practicing Presbyterian.

Snyder was named partner in 1988.

The next year, Snyder was named partner-in-charge of the mergers and acquisitions practice in the Chicago office.

Snyder joined the computer company Gateway (based in Irvine, California) in 1991 as the executive vice president.

His tenure on the Gateway board ran from 1991 to 2007 until Gateway was sold to Acer Inc. Snyder stated that he did not vote for outsourcing while he was a Gateway board director and he worked to bring jobs to America as the interim CEO of Gateway.

He served as president and chief operating officer from 1996 to 1997.

In 1997, Snyder returned to Ann Arbor to found Avalon Investments Inc., a venture capital company with a $100 million fund, along with the co-founder of Gateway, Ted Waitt.

Snyder was president and chief executive officer of Avalon from 1997 to 2000.

In 1998, Snyder angel funded and co-founded, with University of Michigan (U-M) School of Public Health professor Victor Strecher, Ph.D., HealthMedia Incorporated (HMI), a developer of digital health coaching applications that implemented tailored questionnaires to gather personal information with the goal of creating customized health promotion plans for individuals.

The U-M's Office of Technology Transfer played an integral role in helping HMI get started with Vic Strecher as the founding CEO and the U-M's publicly funded Health Media Research Laboratory (founded and directed by Strecher and now called the Center for Health Communications Research) providing the new company with exclusive research and development findings into health-related computerized tailored messaging and the exclusive licence to sell that content (UM spawns spinoffs, patents).

He then co-founded Ardesta LLC, an investment firm, in 2000 along with three co-founders, which invested in 20 start-up companies through 2011.

He was chairman and chief executive officer of the company.

Despite these university-based start-up and R&D advantages, HMI got off to a poor performance start and in 2001 Snyder replaced the founding CEO (Strecher remained on the HMI board) and personally rescued the company from insolvency with more of his own money.

He was chairman of the board of Gateway from 2005 to 2007, a co-founder of Ardesta, LLC, a venture capital firm, HealthMedia, Inc., a digital health coaching company, and is currently CEO of SensCy, a cybersecurity company based in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

From 2005 to 2007, Snyder served as the chairman of the board.

During 2006, Snyder served as interim chief executive officer while a search for a permanent replacement was made.

He remained on the board of directors until 2007.

A member of the Republican Party, he won the 2010 Michigan gubernatorial election and won reelection in 2014.

Snyder was considered a possible Republican Party candidate for Vice President of the United States in 2012, although ultimately Paul Ryan was selected.

In 2014, Snyder gained national attention during the Flint water crisis, in which he was accused of mishandling the situation that exposed thousands of Flint residents to lead-contaminated water.

A report by the University of Michigan School of Public Health concluded Snyder bore "significant legal responsibility" for the Flint water crisis.

Snyder was term-limited and could not seek re-election in 2018 and was succeeded by Democrat Gretchen Whitmer.

In 2020, an article was published in Vice detailing evidence of corruption and a cover-up by Snyder, including that he was warned repeatedly about the dangerous effects of the decisions he had made about the Flint water supply.

In January 2021, Snyder was among those criminally charged for the crisis.

He pled not guilty to two misdemeanor charges.

In December 2022 Genesee County Judge F. Kay Behm dismissed the charges.

Snyder was born to Dale F. and Helen Louella Snyder in Battle Creek, Michigan, where he was raised.

His father owned a local window-cleaning company in Battle Creek, and was of paternal Dutch descent.

He has an elder sister.

When he was 16, he took a business class at Kellogg Community College on weekends.

By his senior year at Lakeview High School in Calhoun County, Snyder had earned 23 college credits.