• Office Sought: Governor of North Dakota
• Birth Date: March 13, 1957
• Occupation: Bank Executive
• Religion: Roman Catholic
• Web site: http://www.governor.nd.gov

Education

• Dartmouth College, BA
• Northwestern University, MBA

John H. Hoeven III was born in Bismarck, N.D. He attended school in Ashley, a rural farming community in south-central North Dakota, and Minot, where his family moved when he was 12. Hoeven graduated from Minot's Bishop Ryan High School, where he was a top student and standout in football and golf.

Hoeven attended his father's alma mater, Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., where he studied economics and history and played on the college's golf team. After graduating in 1979, he went to law school, but decided instead to pursue a master's degree in business administration at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. He graduated in 1981.

Hoeven returned to Minot to work at First Western Bank & Trust Co., where his father was a controlling stockholder. Hoeven was put in charge of developing the bank's new trust department, handling escrow accounts, estates and employee benefit administration. He became First Western's executive vice president in 1986, overseeing daily operations.

In May 1993, Hoeven was hired as president of the Bank of North Dakota, which is the nation's only state-owned bank. Three politicians serve as the bank's board of directors -- the attorney general, agriculture commissioner and governor, who is chairman.

The people who hired Hoeven were Republican Gov. Ed Schafer (who is now the U.S. agriculture secretary), Democratic Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp and Democratic Agriculture Commissioner Sarah Vogel.

In 1996, Hoeven, responding to urgings from Heitkamp, Vogel and other Democrats, declared he was a Democrat and began exploring a possible race against Schafer. "I have always been moderate in my political views, but now that I am considering elective office, I realize I must join a political party and stick to it," Hoeven said in a February 1996 letter affirming his choice. "I have decided to join the Democratic-NPL Party because I believe that is the best fit for my views."

However, Hoeven decided against running against Schafer in 1996 he won re-election easily against the Democratic candidate, Mayville state Rep. Lee Kaldor -- and eventually switched his political allegiance, serving as a state Republican district chairman and contributing to GOP candidates.

Hoeven decided to seek the Republican endorsement to run for governor in 2000, and resigned as the Bank of North Dakota's president in June of that year to devote full time to the campaign. He defeated Gary Nelson, a longtime Republican state senator and Senate majority leader, for the endorsement, and went on to defeat Heitkamp in the general election race for governor. Heitkamp's candidacy was hurt by her disclosure, six weeks before the election, that she was suffering from breast cancer.

Hoeven is still a stockholder in First Western and sits on its board of directors. His father, John H. "Jack" Hoeven Jr., is chairman.

Hoeven is married to Mical "Mikey" Hoeven. The couple has a daughter, Marcela, and a son, Jack.