Christian Fong

Fong is the son of a Chinese immigrant who fled Communist China as his family was persecuted and killed for their Christian faith.[3] Fong was born in the state of Maine in the United States in 1977 and was brought up in humble circumstances. Christian graduated from Underwood (Iowa) High School at age 16 with valedictorian honors, received a B.S. in Statistics, summa cum laude, from Creighton University in 1996 and then studied at Dartmouth College, receiving his MBA in Statistics from the Tuck School of Business, with high distinction.[4]

Christian was known for pro-growth political policies. Christian was opposed to tax increases, stating that during a deep recession is "the worst possible time to raise taxes". He was a strong supporter of a balanced budget, fiscal responsibility and community driven business growth policies.

After the Iowa Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional the state's statute banning same-sex marriage, Fong voted in favor of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.[5] Fong has stated "The Legislature says one thing and the Supreme Court says the opposite. The law is clear. There is one arbiter when you have a disagreement and it's not the governor, it's the people of Iowa".[6] He is also pro-life and opposes government funding for elective abortions.

After his campaign for Governor, Christian founded[7] Renewable Energy Trust Capital (RET), a clean energy renewable energy power producer headquartered in San Francisco, CA, credited with inventing the financial technology that become the multi-billion dollar industry of renewable energy "yieldcos". Christian served as the original CEO, raising over $250 million in venture capital, then as COO/CFO and Chief Investment Officer after former California PUC commissioner John Bohn [8] was recruited as CEO. BlueMountain Capital acquired RET for an undisclosed amount in a private transaction. He went on to serve as an Independent Director on the Boards of Directors of prominent yieldco Terraform Power (NASDAQ: TERP),[9] of privately owned Spruce Finance, a solar and energy efficiency finance firm and as Founder and President of Fong Management LLC. In 2018, Fong became the CEO of Spruce Finance,[10] which is based in Houston, TX,[11] and is the largest privately held residential solar company in the United States.[12] Prior to his campaign for Governor, Christian was Managing Director of Capital Markets at AEGON USA Reality Advisors and served as president and CEO of Corridor Recovery, helping with flood recovery efforts in Eastern Iowa.[13] Additionally, Christian chaired the Small Business Task Force of the Cedar Rapids Chamber of Commerce. He was appointed by then Iowa Governor Chet Culver to the Generation Iowa Commission in 2007, and was elected by his peers as Chair where he traveled around the state meeting and advising local and state government entities, as well as business groups, on attracting and retaining next generation workforce.