John Rakolta

John Rakolta
Personal details
Born 1947 (age 69–70)
Political party Republican
Alma mater Marquette University
Harvard University

John Rakolta Jr. is the CEO of Walbridge[1] (formerly known as Walbridge Aldinger). He was also one of the National Finance Chairs for Mitt Romney's 2008 Presidential Campaign. Rakolta's wife Terry Rakolta is the sister of Mitt's former sister-in-law, Ronna Romney.

He was offered the opportunity to be part of a consortium of five Detroit-area businessmen to provide a loan to Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to convince him to resign so that the scandals he had created would end, but Rakolta declined before it actually happened, so the other four went on with it alone.

Rakolta received his bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Marquette University in 1970 and then studied smaller company management at the Harvard Business School.[2]

All four of Rakolta's grandparents were immigrants from Romania.[3][4] He is the Honorary-Consul General [5] for Romania in Detroit.

Rakolta's father, John Rakolta, Sr. (1923–2003), was the head of Walbridge Aldinger before Rakolta. Rakolta Jr. began his career at Walbridge in 1971, became COO in 1978 and CEO in 1991. Rakolta is also on the board of the Munder Funds since 1993.

Aside from his work for the Romney campaign in 2008, Rakolta was a major fundraiser for the Bush campaign in 2004.[6] Most recently he was State Finance Chair for Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan. Rakolta served as the chairman of New Detroit from 2003-10.

Rakolta's daughter Lauren Rakolta was also a major figure in Mitt Romney's campaign and previously had worked for Mitt Romney when he was governor of Massachusetts. She was the finance director for Republican Rick Snyder's campaign for governor of Michigan in 2010.[7]

In 2015, Rakolta supported the Marco Rubio presidential campaign, 2016.[8]

References

  1. ↑ "Building Design and Construction Consultants". Walbridg.come. Retrieved 2017-05-05.
  2. ↑ Constructorul, 22 May 2005, Ana-Maria Luca, Jurnalul Național
  3. ↑ John Rakolta Biography Archived 2012-03-19 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ↑ Constructorul, 22 mai 2005, Ana-Maria Luca, Jurnalul Național, accesat la 23 aprilie 2017
  5. ↑ Honorary Consulates of Romania in the US Archived 2007-06-25 at the Wayback Machine.
  6. ↑ "The John McCain-Mitt Romney bond warms on the trail". Latimesblogs.latimes.com. July 19, 2008. Retrieved 2017-05-05.
  7. ↑
  8. ↑ Troy, Tevi. "Rubio 2016: Romney ally endorsement". Politico.com. Retrieved 2017-05-05.
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