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JOHN LYNCH was born in Waltham, Massachusetts. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of New Hampshire in 1974, an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School, and a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center. Early in his career, Lynch served as director of admissions at the Harvard Business School. Later, as the president and CEO of Knoll, Inc., a national furniture manufacturer, he transformed a company losing $50 million a year into one making a profit of nearly $240 million. He was appointed to the University System of New Hampshire's Board of Trustees in 2000, serving as chair from 2001 to 2004.

Inaugurated as governor of New Hampshire in January 2005, Lynch is bringing a renewed spirit of bipartisan cooperation to the state house and working to make progress on the issues important to New Hampshire families: improving education, reducing health care costs, protecting the environment, and creating good jobs.

In his first months in office, Governor Lynch joined with bipartisan coalitions of legislators to pass legislation to stabilize health care costs for small businesses; to eliminate a projected $300 million budget deficit; to safeguard New Hampshire’s natural resources; and to improve the state’s education funding system. In 2006, Lynch is focusing on a number of initiatives, including enacting the Child Protection Act, one of the toughest and most comprehensive efforts in the country to protect children against sexual predators; reducing the state's high dropout rate; and raising the compulsory school attendance age from 16 to 18.

Governor Lynch and his wife, Susan, live in Hopkinton, and have three children—Jacqueline, a sophomore at the University of New Hampshire; and Julia and Hayden, who attend local public schools.