Topic: Donald Carcieri

Donald L. "Don" Carcieri (born December 16, 1942) is the Governor of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. Carcieri has had a varied vocational background, having worked as a manufacturing company executive, aid relief worker, bank executive and teacher. He is an opponent of same sex marriage and has joined the National Organization for Marriage.

Carcieri grew up in an Italian neighborhood. He played baseball, basketball, and football while in high school and received a college scholarship. He graduated from Brown University with a degree in International Relations. Carcieri started his career as a high school math teacher, working in Newport, Rhode Island and Concord, Massachusetts. He later became a banker and businessman, working his way up the ranks to become an executive vice president at Old Stone Bank.

In 1981, Carcieri and his family moved to Kingston, Jamaica, where the future governor worked for Catholic Relief Services. Two years later, he returned to Rhode Island and became an executive at the Cookson Group. He eventually became CEO of the company's subsidiary, Cookson America. He also worked as Joint Managing Director for Cookson and helped the corporation's sales to rise from $30 million to $3 billion per year. At the request of Carcieri, Cookson established their US headquarters in an unused building in downtown Providence.