Native of Wheatland, Wyoming
B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Kansas State University.
Served in the US Air Force
Worked with the unmanned space programs for the Air Force and for NASA, including the Global Positioning Satellite System, early detection/warning systems, the Interim Upper Stage for the Space Shuttle and the Mars Viking Lander, activation of the Peacekeeper missile system and disaster recovery from nuclear, biological and chemical warfare.
Served in the Wyoming Legislature from 1983 to 1994, including six years each in the House and the Senate. Committee chairmanships included Appropriations, Judiciary and Management Audit.
Contract administrator for the construction of a 1700 megawatt coal-fired electric power generation plant near Wheatland Wyoming 1977-79.
Went into full-time farming in 1980, continued through 1994.
First elected as Wyoming Governor in 1994, reelected in 1998, completed second term in January 2003. Focused on improving education through standards, accountability and technology, modernized economic planning to extensively include technology, changed how natural resource agencies among state, federal and local governments worked together, implemented strategic planning tied to performance based budgeting and upon leaving office, provided Wyoming state government with a budget surplus, one of very few states to make that claim early in 2003.
Emphasized community based solutions particularly for health and social services and promoted the use of consensus building to resolve difficult issues.
Past chair of the Western Governors' Association
Chairman of the Education Commission of the States
Served on the GeoSpatial One Stop Board of Directors, National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st Century, the National Commission on Service-Learning, the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, chair of the National Governors Association Technology Task Force and as charter member and current Chair of the Board of Trustees, Western Governors University
Current memberships: Mapping Sciences Committee under the National Academy of Sciences National Research Council; Western Interstate Energy Board ; Association of Governing Boards for higher education; Operation Public Education; the Board of Governors of the Oquirrh Institute; and, co-chair of the Policy Consensus Initiative.
Joined Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) in the summer of 2003 as Director of Policy and Public Sector Strategies, focused on how senior elected and corporate officials can enable productivity through technology more effectively in business and government. ESRI, the world leader in location based software and applications, is headquartered in Redlands, California
Recent keynotes include presentations on health care, health data standards, energy, education policy, natural resources, homeland security, the importance of government services enabled through internet portals, web-based infrastructure.
Governor Geringer and his wife Sherri have five children and nine grandchildren. They reside in Wheatland, Wyoming, the site of ESRI’s newest satellite office.