Betsy DeVos is one of the most popular and richest Politician who was born on January 8, 1958 in Holland, Michigan, United States. The Dick & Betsy DeVos Family Foundation was founded in 1989. The foundation’s charitable giving, according the website of its founders, is fueled by faith as well as “is centered in cultivating leadership, accelerating transformation and leveraging support in five areas” which include education, community arts, justice, and leadership. In 2015 DeVos Foundation made DeVos Foundation made $11.6 million in charitable donations, which brought the total amount of their lifetime charitable contributions total to $139million. Forbes has ranked the DeVos family as No. 24 on its rankings of the top American donors.
During the 1990s, she served on the boards of Children First America and the American Education Reform Council, which sought to expand school choice through vouchers and tax credits. She and her husband worked for the successful passage of Michigan’s first charter-school bill in 1993, and for the unsuccessful effort in 2000 to amend Michigan’s constitution to allow tax-credit scholarships or vouchers. In response to that defeat, DeVos started a PAC, the Great Lakes Education Project, which championed charter schools. DeVos’s husband and John Walton then founded All Children Matter, a political organization, which she chaired.
The DeVos family is one of Michigan’s wealthiest. Betsy DeVos’s husband, Richard Marvin “Dick” DeVos Jr., is a multi-billionaire heir to the Amway fortune who ran Amway’s parent company, Alticor, from 1993 to 2002. Dick DeVos is a major donor to conservative political campaigns and social causes, and was the 2006 Republican nominee for Governor of Michigan. They married in 1979, and have four grown children: Rick, Elissa, Andrea, and Ryan. Rick works for the Windquest Group as a consultant on urban development, and is the founder of Grand Rapids’ ArtPrize festival. Dick’s father, Richard Marvin DeVos Sr., co-founded Amway and was the owner of the Orlando Magic NBA basketball team. Richard DeVos was listed by Forbes in 2016 as having a net worth of $5.1 billion, making him America’s 88th wealthiest individual.
In the years since 1982 DeVos was a member of since 1982, she has been a member of the Michigan Republican Party. She was the local precinct’s delegate to members of the Michigan Republican Party, having been elected to 16 consecutive two-year term terms beginning in 1986. Her role was as the Republican National Committeewoman from Michigan between the years 1992 and 1997. She was chairperson for the Michigan Republican Party from 1996 to 2000. In 2004 The Lansing State Journal described DeVos as “a political pit bull for most of [Gov. Jennifer] Granholm’s 16 months in office,” and added that even if DeVos wasn’t the governor’s “worst nightmare,” she was “certainly her most persistent”. Bill Ballenger, editor of the magazine Inside Michigan Politics and a former Republican state senator, described DeVos “a good behind-the-scenes organizer and a good fund raiser” and “a true believer in core Republican issues that leave nobody in doubt on where she stands”. DeVos was sacked in the year 2000. She stated in 2000 “It is clear I have never been a rubber stamp … I have been a fighter for the grassroots, and following is admittedly not my strong suit.” When she was in 2003 DeVos was a candidate for the post of party chairman. She was elected without opposition.
DeVos received her education at Holland Christian High School, which is a private school that is located in her hometown in Holland, Michigan. The school she attended was Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she received the Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and business in 1979. In the college years, DeVos was involved with the campus politics, was a volunteer for Gerald Ford’s Presidential campaign as well as attended an event at the Republican National Convention to participate in a program designed for young Republicans.
DeVos is chairwoman of the Windquest Group, a privately held operating group that invests in technology, manufacturing, and clean energy. DeVos and her husband founded it in 1989. With a commitment of $100 million, Betsy DeVos was one of the largest investors—and losers—in blood-testing company Theranos.
