Jon Huntsman

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman is a moderate with billionaire roots and intense personal popularity who speaks Mandarin fluently and briefly served as U.S. ambassador to China under the Obama administration.

He the GOP presidential race on June 21 in a speech at Liberty State Park in New Jersey, with the Statue of Liberty in the background -- the same site where Ronald Reagan launched his campaign in 1980.

Huntsman was born March 26, 1960 in Palo Alto, Calif., to Karen Haight Huntsman, daughter of Mormon Church apostle David B. Haight, and billionaire businessman and philanthropist Jon Huntsman of the Huntsman Corporation.

Huntsman attended Palo Alto High School but dropped out before graduating to pursue his passion as a keyboard player in the rock band Wizard.

He later obtained a G.E.D and matriculated at the University of Utah. Huntsman served as a Mormon missionary in Taiwan for two years, then transferred to the University of Pennsylvania and received a bachelor's degree in international politics.

He married Mary Kaye Cooper in 1983. They have seven children, including two adopted children from China and India.

Huntsman then joined the family business as project manager and secretary of Huntsman Corporation. In 1987, he becomes vice president and director of Huntsman Pacific Chemical Corporation and Huntsman International and moves his family to Taiwan.

In 1992, Huntsman is named U.S. ambassador to Singapore, becoming the youngest head of a U.S. diplomatic mission in a century. Nine years later, President George W. Bush names him deputy U.S. trade representative and U.S. trade ambassador.

Huntsman won election as Utah governor in 2004 and was reelected in 2008. In 2009, he left the position to become U.S. ambassador to China under the Obama administration.

Huntsman resigned from that position in April 2011 to join the presidential race.

On The Issues:

Defense -- As former ambassador to China, he stresses a better relationship with that country as well as more involvement with India and Latin America and believes the country can take the lead on advancing and opening up international trade.

Energy -- He advocates embracing fracking and new technology like coal-to-liquid gas and streamlining the development of North American oil and gas reserves, oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska, shale gas and oil in the U.S. and Canadian oil sands.

Health Care -- He favors repealing Obama's health care law and, as governor of Utah, proposed health care reform that would use tax breaks and negotiation to keep insurance prices down.

Jobs -- Huntsman's jobs plan emphasizes corporate tax cuts, reigning in the Environmental Protection Agency's "jobs-killing" regulations, reduce the country's dependency on foreign oil and establish new lines of international trade to open up markets for American businesses.

Sources: www.jon2012.com, New York Times, Wikipedia