Nugent Magazine Fall 2018 Josh Romney

Meet Josh. Businessman, philanthropist, and family man who just happens to be the middle son of Mitt and Ann Romney. Though he grew up just outside of Boston, he’s now made the Beehive State his home and now devotes his time to making our state, and the world, a better place. But not without having fun while he’s doing it.

With a degree from BYU and an MBA from Harvard under his belt, Josh launched a successful business career. Not only does he have his own mortgage company, Intercap Lending, but he also runs a real estate investing company, known as the Romney Group. He’s happy to say that Intercap Lending has grown to over 200 employees, and are putting people in homes across the Wasatch Front and beyond, because they’re licensed in 42 states.

He often speaks to groups of current and aspiring entrepreneurs and tells them his number-one rule of business, “Find a good way to measure your success. If your success is always based on money, I think it’s really hard to get in control. But if you base your success on more attainable things, like relationships, experience, fun, having that as your goal will make you a much more successful person.” He also emphasizes the need for a growth mindset. “Take risks and don’t be afraid of failure. I think that’s an American trait that sets us apart from the rest of the world. We don’t look at failure as the end. It’s a learning process, and you can grow from there.”

As busy as he is, Josh believes in the importance of good, old-fashioned family time. He and his wife Jennifer met at BYU at a girl’s soccer game, and have gone on to have six boys and one girl of their own. Josh loves taking his kids on various trips he takes when working with CharityVision, allowing them to see far off corners of the world such as Peru, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines. He considers Indonesia one of his favorite destinations. “Indonesia is incredible. The people are very friendly and it’s a gorgeous country. A beautiful island with beautiful beaches and beautiful people. We got to hang out with a komodo dragon one day and that was fun. It’s quite a place.”

Though he loves to travel to far-flung destinations, he also loves vacationing in state, down on a family ranch near Zion’s National Park at the mouth of Kolob Canyon, where they can camp, ride mountain bikes and motorcycles, hunt, and fish to their hearts’ content.

Though his youngest is only two now, someday he hopes to travel the world with his wife, Jennifer. Near the top of his bucket list is to experience an actual African safari and he is also hoping to take her down to Boliva to see the waterfalls as part of his CharityVision travels.

Josh has a vision of helping people

Josh has a vision of helping people!

Speaking of his charity work, Josh has a vision— of helping people with their vision. For the past five years, he’s been working CharityVision International, a foundation that partners with local doctors in developing countries to provide essential vision care. The goal is to establish permanent and sustainable eye care programs in places that lack the necessary tools and training. The foundation work in over 25 developing countries and provides over 80,000 vision surgeries annually. He felt drawn to the cause, because it is an amazing way to touch as many lives as possible. They can perform eye surgeries for as little as $25 that can completely change the course of a person’s life for the better, allowing them a much more prosperous future.

In his world travels, he has seen how rampant poverty and homelessness have become worldwide, and so he’s working hard to fight these problems at home. He sits on the Shelter the Homeless Board in Salt Lake City, an organization that oversees the building of new shelters for the homeless and helping them work towards housing and employment. “It’s a really important cause for the state to be able to take care of its most vulnerable population. All too often they are getting preyed on by those who want to take advantage of their circumstances. We’re trying to do what we can to get them back on their feet, to be selfsustaining and get them back in employment.”

In the meantime, he has several other hobbies to blow off steam. He admits to being glued to his Twitter account at times, hoping to pick up the latest political news from a variety of sources. He also loves classic cars, and when asked what his dream car was, he answered without hesitation, “A 1967 Camaro!” Turns out, it’s not just the car of his dreams. He actually owns it. He also loves water sports, especially water skiing, which has been a part of his life since he was seven years old. It is something of a whole Romney family pastime.

You can help Josh and his family with their charity work by visiting charityvision.net and clicking on the donate button. You can also learn about Shelter the Homeless at: www.homelessutah.org.

To learn more about Josh’s business ventures, please visit: intercaplending.com and theromneygroup.com

He also loves water sports, especially water skiing, which has been a part of his life since he was seven years old. It is something of a whole Romney family pastime.