Sean Parnell

Sean's father, Pat, was stationed at Fort Richardson, near Anchorage, Alaska, while he served in the U.S. Army during statehood years (1957–1959), and returned to Alaska with his family in 1973, establishing residence in Anchorage.

Sean Parnell was 10 years old at the time.

Parnell's mother worked as a high school teacher for more than twenty-five years.

She taught at Bartlett High School and East Anchorage High School, the latter a short distance from their home.

Both of Parnell's parents were entrepreneurs, owning a retail photocopy and office supply business together in Anchorage for more than twenty-five years.

Parnell worked in the family business as a teenager and during his college years.

Sean Randall Parnell (born November 19, 1962) is an American attorney and politician who was the tenth governor of Alaska from 2009 to 2014.

In 1980, Pat Parnell, a Democrat, ran against incumbent Don Young for Alaska's sole seat in the United States House of Representatives, taking 25.82% of the vote.

Parnell graduated from East Anchorage High School in 1980.

He earned a BBA in 1984 from Pacific Lutheran University and a Juris Doctor in 1987 from the University of Puget Sound School of Law (now known as Seattle University School of Law).

He is admitted to the bar in both Alaska and Washington, D.C. Parnell worked as an attorney in the private sector from 1987 to 2003, 2005 to 2006, and in 2015 after his term as governor.

For nine years of the time he owned his own law practice.

In the 1990s, he continued in private practice while he served in the Alaska House and the Alaska Senate.

When Parnell left the Alaska Senate, he became director of government relations in Alaska for Phillips Petroleum, which later became ConocoPhillips.

He practiced law before being elected to the Alaska House of Representatives in 1992 and he continued to work in private legal practice while he was a member of the Alaska House and later, the Alaska Senate.

Parnell was first elected to the Alaska House of Representatives, in 1992 at the age of twenty-nine.

He represented a district in Anchorage that included at that time, Independence Park, Dimond Blvd., and the Southport/Bayshore areas of Anchorage.

After his first year in the state house, Parnell was named the "Most Effective Freshman Legislator" by his colleagues and those who worked in the State Capitol.

This recognition arose because Parnell was known for taking the time to help other legislators hone and pass their legislation and in doing so, learned the legislative process and developed relationships with his colleagues.

He served two terms in the Alaska House from 1993 to 1997 before he was elected to one term in the Alaska Senate from 1997 to 2001.

Parnell continued his legal career in the private sector, working as an attorney and as the state government relations director for Phillips Petroleum, now known as ConocoPhillips, and an attorney at the law firm Patton Boggs.

In 1994, Parnell was re-elected to represent South Anchorage in the Alaska House.

Throughout his four years in the Alaska House of Representatives, Parnell was known for his work on the House Finance Committee and in the fight against domestic violence and sexual assault in Alaska.

During those years he sponsored and passed seminal legislation known as the Domestic Violence Prevention Act of 1996 that was Alaska's first consistent, comprehensive statewide policy on this issue.

In 2005, he joined the law firm Patton Boggs and practiced law.

Patton Boggs represented ExxonMobil in the Exxon Valdez oil spill litigation, though Parnell had no role in that representation or litigation.

Returning to public service, Parnell won the Republican primary race for lieutenant governor in 2006 and became Palin's running mate in her 2006 gubernatorial campaign, where the Palin and Parnell ticket defeated former Democratic governor Tony Knowles.

Parnell was sworn in as lieutenant governor of Alaska in December 2006 and later assumed the governorship after Palin resigned in July 2009.

Parnell left Patton Boggs less than two years later on December 3, 2006.

He succeeded Sarah Palin in July 2009, and was elected governor in his own right in 2010 with 59.06% of the vote, as the largest percentage margin of any Alaska governor since statehood.

Parnell was elected to a full term as governor in 2010, defeating former state representative Ethan Berkowitz in the general election.

Parnell is the first unelected Alaska governor to be elected in his own right.

In 2014, he narrowly lost his bid for re-election and returned to work in the private sector.

He is a member of the Republican Party.

Born in Hanford, California, Parnell graduated from the University of Puget Sound's School of Law (now known as Seattle University School of Law).

He was narrowly defeated for a second term in 2014 by the formally Independent "unity ticket" of Republican-turned-Independent Bill Walker and Democrat Byron Mallott.

Parnell became chancellor of the University of Alaska Anchorage on June 12, 2021.

Parnell was born in Hanford, California, the elder of two sons of Thelma Carol (née Liebherr) and Kevin Patrick "Pat" Parnell.

As children, Parnell and his younger brother, Schoen (pronounced "Shane") were raised in a close-knit family.

Two of his paternal great-grandparents were Norwegian.