Steve Raukar was first appointed to the Port Authority in January 1998 by the St. Louis County Board and reappointed in January 2010. He was elected president in March 2012 after having served as vice president of the Port Authority Board since 2003. Raukar is a St. Louis County Commissioner, originally elected to represent the Seventh District in 1989. He has chaired that board four times and serves as chairperson on several other committees and boards, including:  St. Louis County Housing and Redevelopment Authority, the Arrowhead Economic Opportunity Agency, the St. Louis and Lake Counties Regional Railroad Authority, and the Northeast Waste Advisory Committee. In 2008, he was elected chair of the Minneapolis-Duluth/Superior Passenger Rail Alliance (NLX). A native of Hibbing, Raukar is a 1974 graduate of St. Cloud State University. He spent eight years in advertising at the Hibbing Daily Tribune, was an art and photography teacher in Nashwauk, and a maintenance mechanic apprentice in the taconite industry at National Steel (now Keetac). He also worked in the information office of then-Lt. Gov. Rudy Perpich and as liaison to the Minnesota State Arts Board and Bicentennial Commission. Raukar began his elected public service in 1983, serving six years on the Hibbing School Board. He and his wife reside in Kelly Lake.