Timothy James "Tim" "T-Paw" Pawlenty (born November 27, 1960) is the 39th and current Governor of Minnesota. In the Minnesota gubernatorial election of 2002 he was elected governor and was inaugurated on January 6, 2003. He was re-elected in 2006. On June 2, 2009, Pawlenty announced that he would not seek re-election for a third term.

Pawlenty is of Polish and German ancestry. He was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and grew up in nearby South St. Paul. He is one of five children of Eugene and Virginia (Oldenburg) Pawlenty. His father drove a milk truck. His mother died of cancer when he was 15. Pawlenty played ice hockey on his high school's junior varsity squad.

In 1983, he received a B.A. degree in Political Science at the University of Minnesota's College of Liberal Arts. In 1986, he graduated with a law degree from the University of Minnesota Law School. In law school, he met his future wife, Mary Anderson. After their marriage, they settled in Eagan, Minnesota.