Tim Penny
Director

Tim Penny is the President and CEO of the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation as well as a senior fellow at the Humphrey Institute Policy Forum at the University of Minnesota. He represented southeastern Minnesota’s First Congressional District from 1982 to 1994 and was a member of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee and chair of the Foreign Agriculture and Hunger subcommittee. Penny also served on the Veterans Affairs Committee and the Select Committee on Hunger. While in Congress, Penny founded and co-chaired the Democratic Budget Group and drafted numerous deficit-cutting initiatives at a time when fellow House Democrats were reluctant to join him.

Since 1995, Penny has worked as a senior counselor for the Minnesota-based public relations firm Himle Horner. From 1998-1999 Penny served as a member of Governor Jesse Ventura’s transition team, and in 2002 he was the Independence Party candidate for governor. In 2001, Penny was actively involved as a member of President Bush’s bipartisan commission on Social Security.

Penny is a member of several boards, including as policy chair for the budget watchdog group the Concord Coalition, chair of the Southern Minnesota Leadership Circle, vice chair of ACDI/VOCA (an international development agency), and as a trustee of the Wells Fargo Advantage Funds and the Good Samaritan Society.

Penny is co-author of three books, Common Cents (1995), Payment Due (1996) and The 15 Biggest Lies in Politics (1998), and is a regular public speaker, radio commentator and editorial writer on the topics of state and federal budgeting, agricultural policy, trade issues, rural development, and leadership.

Penny received a B.A. from Winona State University and served 12 years in the Navy Reserves, rising to the rank of lieutenant commander. He resides in Waseca, Minn., and has four grown children and two grandchildren.