Jim Geringer

James Edward Geringer (; born April 24, 1944) is an American politician who was the 30th governor of Wyoming, serving from 1995 to 2003.

Early life and education Geringer was born and raised on a farm in Wheatland, Wyoming. His father, Gottlieb Geringer, was a Volga German from Lauwe (now Yablonovka, Saratov Oblast) in the Russian Empire, and his mother, Edla Malin (née Johnson), was of Swedish descent. After the state legislature switched from a county-based apportionment system to a district based apportionment system, in 1992, Geringer was elected to represent the 3rd senate district. In 1994, Geringer was elected as Wyoming's governor.

Geringer was generally a conservative throughout his political career. As governor, he helped pass laws that regulated class action lawsuits, reformed bankruptcy laws, toughened crime laws, legalized charter schools, and lowered taxes. However, he broke with the Republican Party in supporting environmental rulings and the Equal Rights Amendment.

In 1997, Governor Geringer called for a boycott of America Online after Sondra London posted a series of murder confessions sent to her from "Happy Face Killer" Keith Jesperson, protesting that he found the items to be offensive. Although London voluntarily removed the pages in question, AOL banned her from the AOL domain, which in turn prompted an outpouring of support from all over the World Wide Web, including multiple offers of free server space.

After serving as governor, he joined Redlands, California based ESRI as director of policy and public sector strategies.

Geringer is one of the founding governors of Western Governors University (WGU) and is currently an emeritus trustee on the WGU Board of Trustees.