Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno (Class of 2011)State of New Jersey

Kim Guadagno was elected New Jersey’s first Lieutenant Governor in November 2009. As Governor Chris Christie’s running mate, she was sworn into office on January 19, 2010. In addition to serving as the Lt. Governor, Kim Guadagno serves as the 33rd Secretary of State. Lt. Governor Guadagno has been a lawyer for more than 28 years and began her career in public service as a federal prosecutor with the Organized Crime & Racketeering Strike Force in Brooklyn, New York.

When she married a native of New Jersey, Kim Guadagno and her husband decided to move to Monmouth County to raise a family. At that time, Guadagno became an Assistant United States Attorney in Newark. As a federal prosecutor in New Jersey, she was awarded the nation’s highest honor for her prosecutions of two separate corrupt public officials in New Jersey. In 2001, Kim Guadagno left the public sector to practice law closer to home. At that time, she also became a teacher at Rutgers University School of Law-Newark. In her hometown of Monmouth Beach, she was appointed a volunteer planning board member and in 2005 was elected a Borough Commissioner in Monmouth Beach.In 2007, Kim Guadagno was elected the 75th Sheriff of Monmouth County, the first woman elected as sheriff in that county’s history.

As Lt. Governor, Kim Guadagno has led the Christie Administration’s efforts to improve New Jersey’s economic vitality, to streamline government, and to make business feel welcome again in New Jersey. The Lt. Governor chairs the Red Tape Review Commission, which is engaged in an ongoing review and reform of the State’s regulatory process. In her first year in Office, the state saw a 66% decrease in the number of proposed regulations over the same period the year before.

Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno was born in Waterloo, Iowa. She received her juris doctorate degree, cum laude, from the American University Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C. Lt. Governor Guadagno and her husband, Superior Court Judge Michael Guadagno, currently reside in Monmouth Beach with their three sons.