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Businessman and entrepreneur Greg Orman of Olathe, Kansas is running for the United States Senate to change Washington’s tired and stale ways, and get our country on the right track again.

Greg believes we can’t afford to stand still while the status quo in Washington holds America back. It’s time the people of Kansas had a forward-looking leader in the Senate – a leader who believes in Kansas principles like fiscal responsibility, accountability, common sense, and problem-solving.

Greg was born in Minnesota on December 2, 1968. He is the second oldest child in a single parent family with six children. Greg grew up in Mankato, a town of roughly 30,000 people in south central Minnesota. Surrounded by farm communities, Mankato’s primary industries were agriculture, manufacturing, and education.

Greg’s mother, Darlene Gates, raised Greg and his siblings while working full-time as a registered nurse. As her youngest children entered elementary school, Darlene set an example for all her children by going back to college to earn her bachelors degree in community health at Mankato State University. She worked hard, but always made time to cheer at her children’s sporting events.

His father, Timothy Orman, started a small furniture store in Stanley, Kansas with his brother in 1971. Tim worked two jobs during the first three years of the store’s existence to ensure that he could provide for his family while the business went through its difficult start-up years.

Greg earned his first paycheck and learned the value of a dollar working at his father’s furniture store in Stanley, Kansas. It was there that a young Greg Orman learned that successful private businesses take care of their employees, develop practical solutions to business problems, and know when to chart a new course. Greg has exemplified those principles throughout his successful career as a businessman and entrepreneur.

Greg is the founder of Environmental Lighting Concepts, a company dedicated to assisting businesses in becoming more energy-efficient. While Greg was at the helm of ELC, the company installed energy-saving lighting systems that led to a cumulative reduction of over one million tons of emissions – roughly the equivalent of taking 20,000 automobiles off the road forever. Greg and ELC were pioneering these business solutions as far back as 1992 – putting them on the cutting-edge of today’s energy-efficient economy.

And, under Greg’s fiscal stewardship, ELC experienced operating margins that doubled industry averages, achieved earnings growth in excess of 200 percent annually, and became profitable just three financial quarters from its inception.

Greg moved Environmental Lighting Concepts to Kansas in 1997 and sold 70% of the company to KLT Energy Services Inc., a subsidiary of Kansas City Power & Light. Greg agreed to join the KLT as an executive focused on new business development. Since joining KLT – and subsequently leading his own company, Denali Partners – Greg has directly assisted numerous small businesses in their efforts to grow and compete in the global marketplace.

Greg currently serves on the board of directors of On Demand Technologies, LLC, a Kansas digital printing company and on numerous other for-profit and charitable boards including the Gala at the Glen for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

After forty years with Pat Roberts in Washington, Kansas deserves – and Washington needs – Greg Orman’s practical business experience, fresh ideas, and forward-looking approach.