Chip Tangen, director, member and board relations, joined the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) in 2005. Based in Saint Paul, Minn., Mr. Tangen serves as a liaison for NAM member companies headquartered in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.
Mr. Tangen is an attorney with extensive legislative, political and corporate experience. Before joining the NAM, he served four years as Representative Jim Ramstad’s (R-MN) legislative counsel, where he focused on Judiciary Committee matters and helped craft the legal reforms bill for the GOP’s 1994 "Contract with America." He spent 10 years in Washington lobbying primarily on matters before the Commerce and Judiciary Committees, both as a principal with a Washington firm and as vice president of legislative affairs for a start-up wireless communications company. Mr. Tangen is a veteran of gubernatorial and congressional campaigns and also was director of communications for a mutual funds company. He obtained his law degree from the University of Minnesota and his bachelor’s degree in political science from Middlebury College.