romney was born in detroit. his father, george romney, was an auto executive and governor of michigan and his mother lenore romney, was an actress and politician. when mitt was young, he served a mormon mission in france. romney graduated from brigham young university, in 1971, and later went to harvard business school and harvard law school. in the 1980s, romney was one of the leaders of bain capital, a company that bought other companies and tried to make them more profitable. in 1994, romney ran for the united states senate against ted kennedy, but lost. romney was in charge of the salt lake organizing committee, which helped run the 2002 winter olympics in salt lake city, utah. romney took over the committee after a scandal where some people were being bribed.