Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) is an honorary co-chair of ITIF.
First elected to Congress in 2000, Representative Issa currently serves on the House Government Reform Committee where he is ranking member of the Domestic Policy Subcommittee, chairman of the Oversight Committee, and the House Judiciary Committee. He is also on a temporary leave of absence from the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Representative Issa founded Directed Electronics, the Vista, CA-based industry-leading manufacturer of automobile security and convenience products. He has served as chairman of the Consumer Electronics Association, served as a member of the board of governors of the Electronics Industry Association, and as director of the San Diego Economic Development Association and the Greater San Diego County Chamber of Commerce. In 1994, Representative Issa received the Entrepreneur of the Year Award from Inc. Magazine, Ernst & Young, and The San Diego Union-Tribune.
Representative Issa is perhaps best known as the leader of the successful effort to recall former California Governor Gray Davis in 2003. In 1996, he also co-chaired the campaign to pass the California Civil Rights Initiative that ended racial and gender preferences and quotas in state contracting and college admissions.
Representative Issa enlisted in the Army during his senior year in high school and attended college on an ROTC scholarship. In the Army, he served as a bomb disposal technician, tank platoon commander, computer R&D specialist, and attained the rank of captain. He is a graduate of Siena Heights University in Adrian, MI, and serves as a member of the university Board of Trustees. Darrell and Kathy Issa are longtime residents of Vista, CA. They have one son, William.