https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Buttigieg
current and 32nd Mayor of South Bend, Indiana.[3] A member of the Democratic Party, Buttigieg has been serving as mayor since January 1, 2012.
he was honored by Caroline Kennedy and other members of President Kennedy’s family during a May 22, 2000 ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Library for his prize-winning essay for the JFK Profiles in Courage Essay Contest. Buttigieg’s winning essay centered on the integrity and political courage demonstrated by U.S. Congressman Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the nation’s only Independent member of Congress. He was also selected as one of two Indiana delegates to the United States Senate Youth Program. He attended Harvard College, where he was president of the Harvard Institute of Politics Student Advisory Committee and worked on the Institute's annual study of youth attitudes on politics.[7][8] Buttigieg was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa.[9] Buttigieg graduated from Harvard in 2004, receiving his Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude in History and Literature and writing his thesis on the influence of Puritanism on U.S. Foreign Policy as reflected in the Graham Greene novel The Quiet American.[10] Buttigieg received a first class honors degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics in 2007 from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.[11]
After graduating, from 2004 to 2005 Buttigieg worked in Washington D.C. as conference director for former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen's international strategic consulting firm The Cohen Group. He also spent several months working on Senator John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign, where he was a policy and research specialist.[13]
After graduating from Oxford, he then worked as a consultant at McKinsey and Company, a management strategy consulting firm, for three years, from 2007 through 2010.[14][15]
He was the Democratic Party candidate in 2010 for State Treasurer of Indiana. Buttigieg lost to incumbent Richard Mourdock, garnering 37.5% of the vote.[16]
Buttigieg was elected Mayor of South Bend on November 8, 2011 with 74% of the vote[17] and took office on Jan. 1 as the youngest mayor of a U.S. city with at least 100,000 residents.[17][18] Mayor Buttigieg was named mayor of the year for 2013 by GovFresh.com, tying with former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg.[19][20] The Washington Post has called Buttigieg "the most interesting mayor you've never heard of", citing his age, education, and military background.[17]
Buttigieg has made redevelopment a top priority of his administration. One of the signature programs in his first term has been the Vacant and Abandoned Properties Initiative, known locally as "1,000 Properties in 1,000 Days", which is a project to repair or demolish targeted properties across the city.[21][22] The city has addressed 991 properties as of August 2015.[21] The scheduled end date for the program is November 24, 2015.
Buttigieg served for seven months in Afghanistan as a lieutenant in the US Navy Reserves, returning to the United States on September 23, 2014.[23] In his absence, Deputy Mayor Mark Neal, the City Controller for South Bend, served in the role of executive commencing in February 2014. Buttigieg returned to his role as mayor in October 2014.
Buttigieg announced that he would seek a second term on November 18, 2014.[24] The Democratic Party primary was held on May 5, 2015, and Buttigieg won with 78% of the vote.[25] On November 3, 2015 Buttigieg was elected to his second term as mayor of South Bend with over 80% of the vote. [26]
Buttigieg was named a 2014 Aspen Institute Rodel Fellow.[27] He was named a recipient of the John F. Kennedy New Frontier Fenn Award in 2015.[28]
Personal life[edit]
On June 16, 2015, Buttigieg announced in an essay that he is gay.[29] He is the first openly gay executive in Indiana.[30]