Board of Directors
John Blundell
John Blundell was educated at King’s School, Macclesfield, and at the London School of Economics. He headed the Press, Research and Parliamentary Liaison Office at the Federation of Small Businesses from 1977 to 1982, and was a Lambeth Borough councillor from 1978 to 1982. From 1982 to 1993 he lived in the US where he was, inter alia, president of the Institute for Humane Studies (1988–91); president of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation (1987–91); president of the board of the Congressional Schools of Virginia (1988–92); and president of the Charles G. Koch and Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundations (1991–92). He assumed his duties as general director of the Institute of Economic Affairs on 1 January 1993. He also served as co-founder and chairman, from 1993 to 1997, of the Institute for Children, Boston, MA; founder director (1991–3), Institute for Justice, Washington DC; international trustee (1988–93), The Fraser Institute, Vancouver, BC; and founder trustee of Buckeye Institute, Dayton, OH. He is a director of Fairbridge and of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation (UK) and chairman of the executive committee of the board of Atlas Economic Research Foundation (USA). He is also a board member of the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University, Fairfax, VA; of the Institute of Economic Studies (Europe) in Paris, France; and a former Board member of the Mont Pélerin Society.
Veronique de Rugy, Ph.D.
Veronique de Rugy is a co-founder of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity and the Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation. Dr. de Rugy is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center. She was previously a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, and a research fellow at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation. Her research interests include the federal budget, homeland security, tax competition, and financial privacy issues.
Ms. de Rugy is the coauthor of Action ou Taxation, published in Switzerland in 1996. She is currently on the board of directors of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity.
Ms. de Rugy earned a MA in economics from the University of Paris IX-Dauphine and a PhD in economics from the University of Paris-Sorbonne. She previously directed academic programs for the Institute for Humane Studies-Europe in France.
Dan Mitchell, Ph.D.
Daniel J. Mitchell is a co-founder of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity and the Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation. Dr. Mitchell serves as one of the Cato Institute’s top experts on tax policy and the economy; Dr. Mitchell advocates supply-side tax cuts and fundamental tax reform. Dr. Mitchell also is the nation’s leading opponent of tax harmonization schemes developed by the Brussels-based European Union, the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the United Nations. His September 2000 analysis of the OECD’s “harmful tax competition” initiative was the opening salvo in a campaign that ended with Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill announcing in May 2001 that the United States could no longer support international proposals to persecute low-tax jurisdictions. He has now turned his attention to the EU’s infamous “Savings Tax Directive” and a UN proposal to undermine the sovereign right of nations to determine their own tax policy.
Dr. Mitchell is one of the nation’s leading experts on tax reform and supply-side tax policy, and he knows how to explain the politics and complexities of tax policy in easy-to-understand terms. As former Presidential candidate Steve Forbes said of Mitchell’s 1996 book, The Flat Tax: Freedom, Fairness, Jobs, and Growth, “Mitchell marvelously demonstrates how the flat tax will rip away the principal source of political pollution in Washington.” In addition to tax policy, Dr. Mitchell is a trenchant observer of economic developments and an expert on Social Security privatization – particularly the fiscal policy impact of reform and what the US can learn from other nations that have created personal retirement accounts.
Dr. Mitchell’s by-line can be found in such national publications as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Investor’s Business Daily, and Washington Times. He is a frequent guest on radio and television and a popular speaker on the lecture circuit. Dr. Mitchell holds a Ph.D. in Economics from George Mason University and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in economics from the University of Georgia. Prior to joining Cato, Mitchell was a senior fellow with The Heritage Foundation, and an economist for Senator Bob Packwood and the Senate Finance Committee.. He also served on the 1988 Bush/Quayle transition team and was Director of Tax and Budget Policy for Citizens for a Sound Economy.
Andrew F. Quinlan
Andrew F. Quinlan is the President and co-founder of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity and the Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation. CF&P is the leading voice in the international fight for tax competition, financial privacy, and fiscal sovereignty, and has dramatically altered how policy makers view tax competition between nations. Prior to the CF&P’s involvement, tax competition was viewed as “harmful.” Many policy makers now understand that tax competition is a liberalizing force in the world economy.
Mr. Quinlan has briefed more than 300 Capitol Hill offices on the benefits of tax competition and has educated key Administration staff from the White House and several cabinet level departments. Over the last 10 years, more than 175 members of Congress have sent letters to the Bush and Obama Administrations in support of jurisdictional tax competition. Mr. Quinlan has traveled and lectured on tax competition, financial privacy and information exchange all over the world including London, Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Ottawa, Panama City, Hamilton, Melbourne, Sydney, Wellington, Bridge Town, Hong Kong, Singapore, Mexico City, New York and Miami. The efforts of Mr. Quinlan and CF&P have been profiled in several international publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Time, U.S. News and World Report, Money, The Financial Times and the National Journal. Mr. Quinlan and CF&P have published a daily Internet blog since 2004 that is read all over the world. Mr. Quinlan has also been quoted in major newspapers and has appeared on several television and radio shows.
Mr. Quinlan served as a Senior Economic Analyst for the Republican National Committee before working for more than seven years as a top staff member for New Jersey Congressman Jim Saxton — the last four years as senior advisor to the Joint Economic Committee.
