Governor Warner was elected to the United States Senate in 2008, where he serves on the Senate Finance, Banking, Budget, and Rules Committees as well as the Select Committee on Intelligence, where he is the Vice Chairman. The first in his family to graduate from college, Mark Warner spent 20 years as a successful technology entrepreneur and business leader in Virginia before he was elected Governor in 2001. When he left the Governor’s Office in 2006, Virginia was ranked as the best state for business, the best managed state, and the best state in which to receive a public education.