The Heritage Foundation
Mission Statement
Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is a research and educational institute - a think tank - whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.
Heritage's staff pursues this mission by performing timely, accurate research on key policy issues and effectively marketing these findings to our primary audiences: members of Congress, key congressional staff members, policymakers in the executive branch, the nation's news media, and the academic and policy communities. Heritage's products include publications, articles, lectures, conferences, and meetings.
Governed by an independent Board of Trustees, The Heritage Foundation is a nonpartisan, tax-exempt institution. Heritage relies on the private financial support of the general public - individuals, foundations, and corporations - for its income, and accepts no government funds and performs no contract work. Heritage is one of the nation's largest public policy research organizations. More than 200,000 contributors make it the most broadly supported think tank in America.
http://www.heritage.org/whoweare/mission.htm
David R. Brown,
M.D.
Chairman Emeritus, Orthopedic Associates, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Dr. Brown’s long-time leadership in the world of public policy was most recently displayed by his role as the founder and Chairman of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs. This vibrant new addition to the national network of state-based policy groups is already setting the stage for national efforts in areas as diverse as deregulation and tax policy. Dr. Brown, a renowned orthopedic surgeon, also plays a leading role in the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, a grant-giving institution based in Ardmore, Okla., that supports medical, agricultural and public policy research.
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Publisher and Owner, Tribune-Review Publishing Co., Inc., Greensburg, Pennsylvania
Scaife’s extensive involvement in the publishing industry -- he is the owner and Chairman of the Board of the Tribune-Review as well as a number of radio stations -- has brought a refreshing alternative voice to the media markets of Western Pennsylvania, including his hometown of Pittsburgh. His enduring commitment to the free society is evident in his role as a director with the Pittsburgh World Affairs Council and his service on the boards of the Hoover Institution, Pepperdine University and other major educational institutions. During the Reagan and Bush administrations, Scaife served as a presidentially appointed member of the U.S. Advisory Commission for Public Diplomacy, which oversees the U.S. Information Agency. One of the Pittsburgh area’s leading philanthropists -- he chairs the Sarah Scaife Foundation, The Allegheny Foundation and the Carthage Foundation -- Scaife is a frequent speaker and commentator on U.S. strategic interests.
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Chairman, Racine Industries Inc., Racine, Wisconsin
Rench is leader of the movement to spur citizen activism in electoral politics, having pioneered new methods of mobilizing conservative political involvement at the local level. His role in engineering a number of political upsets over the years has been noted by media in and around his hometown of Racine, Wisc. The Chairman and CEO of Racine Industries Inc., an international carpet-care firm, Rench is a founding Trustee of Heritage. He also serves on the Boards of St. John’s Military Academy and the Free Congress Foundation and is a past member of the Advisory Committee of the Export-Import Bank of the United States.
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Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Allison-Fisher, Inc., Southfield, Michigan
Mr. Allison is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Allison-Fisher, Inc., an automotive marketing research and consultancy firm with offices in Southfield, Michigan and Gardena, California. Before founding Allison-Fisher, Inc. in 1980, Mr. Allison was a partner in an investment company that purchased and operated banks in the United States and Europe. During approximately 20 years with the Ford Motor Company, Mr. Allison served in a number of managerial positions. He graduated from the University of Detroit magna cum laude with a BS in aeronautical engineering. Mr. Allison also serves on the Board of Governors of the Skyline Club and a member of the Economic Club of Detroit. Mr. Allison resides in Birmingham, Michigan with his wife Sarah.
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Founder, Triton Engineering Services Co., Houston, Texas
Joseph Beall founded Triton Engineering Services Company in 1977, providing engineering, management and "turn-key" drilling services for the oil and gas industry. Beall built Triton into a $200 million company before selling it to Noble Drilling Corporation in 1994. He continued to serve as president until 1997, when he retired. After a stint in the U.S. Air Force, Beall attended the University of Texas on the G.I. Bill and graduated in 1957 with a bachelor's degree in petroleum engineering. Earlier in his career, he worked for Chevron and Exxon. He drilled for oil in 54 countries. Beall, who is married to Lois Rae, lives in Houston. They have one son and four grandchildren.
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Counselor to the President, The Heritage Foundation, Alexandria, VA
Belden Bell has served as counselor to Heritage President Edwin J. Feulner since 1996. Before that, he was deputy chief of staff for vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp. He spent five years working at the Organization of American States as ambassador to the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis. Bell also served as a legislative affairs specialist at the U.S. Information Agency and State Department and was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Affairs under President Ronald Reagan. A former assistant Attorney General of Indiana, Bell has also been a deputy director of the House Republican Study Committee. He serves on the Board of Visitors of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. A resident of Alexandria, Va., Bell is an alumnus of Dartmouth College and has earned degrees from Emory University Law School and Indiana University. Author of the book "Nicaragua: An Ally Under Siege," Bell has also contributed articles to Human Events and The Washington Post.
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Golden, Colorado
Ambassador Holland H. Coors is the Founder and President of Women of Our Hemisphere Achieving Together. She also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Adolph Coors Foundation and the Castle Rock Foundation and is active in numerous other philanthropic and civic organizations. "Holly" Coors served two terms on the United States Air Force Academy Board of Visitors under President Ronald Reagan, who also appointed her United States Ambassador to the National Year of the Americas. The Coors family of Golden, Colo., has been active in Heritage’s leadership since its founding.
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New York, New York
Decter’s incisive writing on a range of topics has proven invaluable to the conservative movement. A former editor at Basic Books, her writing has graced the pages of Commentary, First Things, Harper’s and a number of other publications. Her books include "The New Chastity" and "Liberal Parents, Radical Children." A Senior Fellow at the Institute on Religion and Public Life in New York City, Decter previously served as Executive Director of the Committee for a Free World, a powerful voice for anti-communism that she voluntarily disbanded after the fall of the Berlin Wall and collapse of Soviet communism.
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Edwin J. Feulner,
Ph.D.
President, The Heritage Foundation, Washington, D.C.
Heritage’s President Edwin J. Feulner is the recipient of the Presidential Citizens Medal from Ronald Reagan for his work as "a leader of the conservative movement." He is a former Director of the Republican Study Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives and served as Vice Chairman of the National Commission on Economic Growth and Tax Reform, a member of the Commission on Reforming the International Financial Institutions (the “Meltzer Commission), and on the UNESCO Assessment Commission. He has served as President of both the Mont Pelerin Society, the world’s foremost body of conservative intellectuals, and of The Philadelphia Society, and as Chairman of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Chairman of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy and consulted for President Reagan on domestic policy issues. As an active leader of the conservative movement, his books include “Conservatives Stalk the House,” “Leadership for America” and “The March of Freedom."
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President and Chief Executive Officer, Forbes Inc.
A former presidential candidate, Forbes has carved out a distinguished career as both a business executive and a journalist. The head of Forbes Inc. since 1990, he has launched several new ventures, including Forbes.com and successful supplements to-and foreign editions of-the company's flagship publication, FORBES magazine. He also chairs the company's subsidiary, AMERICAN HERITAGE, and is editor-in chief of FORBES magazine. Long active in public affairs, Forbes served as chairman of the bipartisan Board of International Broadcasting, which oversaw Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, from 1985 to 1993. He is a past chairman of the Board of Directors for Empower America and was Honorary Chairman of Americans for Hope, Growth and Opportunity. He also serves as a Trustee of Princeton University (his alma mater) and on numerous other boards.
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Chairman of the Board, Basic American Inc., San Francisco, California
Hume, the Chairman of the Board of Basic American Inc., a San Francisco-based international food service company, has been an active leader of business efforts to improve America’s educational system. Appointed by Gov. Pete Wilson to serve on the California State Board of Education, he has championed such education reforms as "school choice" and actively promoted economic literacy as the Chairman of the Foundation for Teaching Economics. A former Chairman of the California Academy of Sciences, he also has served on the boards of the California Council on Economic Education and TEACH America, a Chicago-based organization that promotes school choice. He currently serves on the board of the Center for Education Reform, which also strongly promotes school choice.
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Chairman, Middendorf and Company, Washington, D.C.
Middendorf has served a number of presidential administrations in high- level positions, including Secretary of the Navy and Ambassador to the European Communities, the Organization of American States, and the Netherlands. A delegate to presidential nominating conventions as far back as Barry Goldwater’s in 1964, Middendorf remains active in shaping conservative foreign, defense and economic policy through regular meetings with staff members on Capitol Hill. An intellectual force behind the North American Free Trade Agreement, having written about the concept of a free-trade area uniting the region as early as 1988 in Heritage’s "Mandate for Leadership III," Middendorf also is a true renaissance man with interests in both music -- he wrote Heritage’s theme march -- and art.
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former U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican, La Jolla, California
Ambassador Shakespeare’s belief in the power of ideas is exemplified by his role as Chairman of the Board for International Broadcasting during the Reagan administration. Under his leadership, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty carried the message of freedom behind the Iron Curtain and helped bring the Cold War to a successful conclusion. Heritage’s Board Chairman from 1981 to 1985, Shakespeare went on to serve as Ambassador to both Portugal and the Holy See (Vatican City). He also has served as President of RKO General Inc., Director of the U.S. Information Agency, and President of CBS Television Services. He currently serves as a Trustee of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation of Milwaukee, Wisc.
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Chairman, Brian Tracy International, San Diego, California
Tracy is chairman of Brian Tracy International, a human resource company based in San Diego, Calif., with affiliates throughout America and in 31 countries worldwide. He addresses more than 400,000 people each year on the subjects of personal and professional development, including the executives and staff of IBM and McDonnell Douglas. He is the author/narrator of several best-selling audio-cassette programs including "The Psychology of Achievement" and "Breaking the Success Barrier." He is also author of "Maximum Achievement" and "Advanced Selling Strategies," published by Simon & Schuster. Tracy has master’s degree from Columbia Pacific University in San Rafael, Calif., and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Alberta.
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Executive Vice President, The Heritage Foundation, Washington, DC
Truluck is Heritage’s chief operating officer, responsible for overseeing all day-to-day operations. During 1982 and 1983, he served on the Executive Committee of the President’s Private Sector Survey on Cost Control, more commonly known as the Grace Commission. Prior to joining Heritage in 1977, he was on the staffs of Sen. Strom Thurmond and Rep. Ben Blackburn, and served as Deputy Director of the Republican Study Committee. He is a founding director of the Board of Directors of the Center for International Private Enterprise, an affiliate of the National Endowment for Democracy, where he served from 1983 to 1991.
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Co-Founder and Senior Chairman, Amway Corp., Ada, Michigan
The co-founder and Senior Chairman of Amway Corp., one of the largest consumer-products companies in the world, Van Andel is one of America’s leading business entrepreneurs. In 1992, he served as the U.S. Ambassador to the International Specialized Exposition in Genoa, Italy, and has also served as Chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, launching its television network and greatly expanding its effectiveness at promoting free enterprise. A native of Grand Rapids, Mich., Van Andel also served on the board of the Jamestown Foundation, which helped Russian political refugees find safe haven in the West.
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Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Amway Corp., Atlanta, Georgia
The Vice President of Corporate Affairs for Amway Corp. and the President of Amway Hotel Properties, Barb Van Andel-Gaby joined the Heritage Board of Trustees in 1996. Carrying on the tradition of involvement in conservative causes established by her father, Jay Van Andel, Van Andel-Gaby serves on the Board of Directors of the Capital Research Center -- a think tank headed by former Heritage Vice President Terrence Scanlon that tracks the flow of charitable dollars -- and has played an active role in Heritage’s Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies since its founding in 1985.
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President, Los Olas Development Co., Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
A principal owner of the Ft. Lauderdale-based Los Olas Company, Wells is a successful entrepreneur with interests in commercial real estate and farming (his Nebraska ranch boasts one of the largest cattle and fresh-water salmon operations in the country). A chemical engineer by training, Wells formerly served as Manager of Engineering and Production for the Chicago-based Quaker Oats Co. Wells also serves on the Board of Directors of the Lillian S. Wells Foundation, a grant- making foundation supporting medical research and art appreciation, and co-chairs Heritage’s Windsor Society with his wife, Marion.