Paul Thissen

State Rep. Paul Thissen was first elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2002. He currently serves as Chair of the Health and Human Services Committee. He also serves on the Finance Committee, the Rules Committee, the Biosciences and Emerging Technologies Committee and the Telecommunications Committee. He is a member of the Legislative Commission on Pensions and Retirement and the Health Care Access Commission. He is Speaker Pro Tempore of the Minnesota House.

Paul is a graduate of Harvard University. and the University of Chicago Law School where he served as an editor of the law review.

After law school, he returned home to Minnesota. Paul clerked for the Honorable James B. Loken of the United State Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, worked for the Minnesota State Public Defenders Office and became a partner at the Minneapolis law firm of Briggs and Morgan.

In 2006, Paul was named one of “Forty Under 40” top business professionals in the Twin Cities by the Twin Cities Business Journal. In 2008, Paul was recognized as one of the 100 Influential Minnesotans in Health Care by Physician Magazine.

Paul is married to Karen Wilson Thissen. They have three children ages 9, 7 and 5.