James E. Geringer

2nd Vice Chair

Gov. Geringer The Honorable James Geringer, a former governor of the State of Wyoming, is now Director of Policy and Public Sector Strategies for Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI). He has held this position since 2003, working with senior elected and corporate officials on how to use geospatial technology for place-based decisions in business and government.

Gov. Geringer is fond of saying that he is an engineer by education, farmer by choice and governor by accident. He has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Kansas State University that enabled 10 years active and 12 years reserve service in the U.S. Air Force working with unmanned space programs of Air Force and NASA. He worked on GPS, remote-sensing early detection/warning systems, the Interim Upper Stage for the Space Shuttle, the Mars Viking Lander, activation of the Peacekeeper missile system and disaster recovery from nuclear, biological and chemical warfare.

Upon leaving active duty, he signed on as contract administrator for the construction of a 1700 megawatt coal-fired electric power generation plant near Wheatland Wyoming, then took up agricultural pursuits along with serving in the Wyoming Legislature from 1983 to 1994, including six years each in the House and the Senate.

Gov. Geringer served two terms as Wyoming Governor during which he focused on improving education through standards, accountability and technology, modernizing Wyoming's economic base to extensively include technology, changing how natural resource agencies among state, federal and local governments worked together, establishing community-based health and family services programs and implementing strategic planning and information systems.

Gov. Geringer is a member of the Committee on America's Climate Choices under the National Academies, served on the Mapping Sciences Committee under the National Research Council; Western Interstate Energy Board; Association of Governing Boards for higher education; Operation Public Education; the Board of Governors of the Park City Center for Public Policy; Board member of NatureServe and, co-chair of the Policy Consensus Initiative. He is the current Chair of the Board of Trustees, Western Governors University.