Leadership

BOARD OF ADVISORS

Keith Hennessey serves as a member of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, a bipartisan commission created by Congress to examine the causes, domestic and global, of the current economic and financial crisis in the United States.  Mr. Hennessey most recently served as Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the National Economic Council under President George W. Bush.  As the President’s senior economic advisor, Mr. Hennessey coordinated financial market issues, tax policy, energy and climate change, health care, Social Security and Medicare reform, housing, technology and telecommunications, and agriculture.  Before the White House, Mr. Hennessey spent eight years on Capitol Hill, most of it working as Economic Policy Advisor to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS).  Mr. Hennessey received a Master in Public Policy degree from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.  He earned a BAS degree in math and political science from Stanford in 1990.

Andrew Laperriere, CFA, is a Managing Director of International Strategy and Investment Group Inc.  ISI is an institutional brokerage firm specializing in economic and political research.  Andy works in ISI’s Washington office, where he analyzes the financial market implications of fiscal and regulatory policy for institutional investors.  Andy focuses on issues before Congress that could affect banking, housing, health, technology, telecommunications and other industries as well as the broader economy.  Before joining ISI in 1999, Andy worked for U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey for eight years. When he left Capitol Hill, he was serving as the Majority Leader’s Economic Policy Advisor.  Andy earned his BA in Political Science with a minor in Business from Villanova University (1990) and a Masters in Economics from George Mason University (1997).

STAFF

Christopher Papagianis is Managing Director and Policy Director at e21.  Mr. Papagianis was previously Special Assistant for Domestic Policy to President George W. Bush.  In this role, he guided the collaborative process within the Executive Branch to develop and implement policies, legislation, and regulations across numerous agencies, including the Department of Treasury, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Transportation, Department of Agriculture, and Department of Health and Human Services.  He was responsible for briefing the President directly on financial markets, housing, and infrastructure-related issues.  Prior to joining the White House team, Mr. Papagianis worked in the U.S. Senate as one of the top policy advisers to Sen. Jim Talent.  Before serving in the U.S. government, Mr. Papagianis was a Peabody Fellow at Harvard University, where he also received his B.A.

Jennifer Pollom is the Director of External Affairs at e21.  Ms. Pollom was previously the Appropriations and Budget Counsel for the Senate Republican Policy Committee, where she was responsible for briefing Senators and staff on federal budgetary strategy and procedure and formulating policy proposals.  Day to day, Ms. Pollom served as the point of contact for the Republican Leadership team to the 49 Republican Senate offices on changing economic and budgetary conditions and political and procedural considerations.  In 2007, Ms. Pollom served as the Economic Policy Coordinator for Mayor Giuliani’s presidential campaign in New York City, formulating the tax and budgetary aspects of Giuliani’s policy platform.  Prior to the presidential campaign, Ms. Pollom worked for the Senate Budget Committee, under Chairman Judd Gregg, and for the U.S. Department of Justice as a Presidential Management Fellow.  Originally from Indiana, Ms. Pollom received a J.D. and a B.A. in English from Indiana University.

Elise Stefanik is a Policy Analyst and New Media Strategist at e21.  Ms. Stefanik most recently served in the White House Office of the Chief of Staff assisting the Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Chief of Staff in overseeing and coordinating the West Wing domestic and economic policy development process.  Previously, she worked on President Bush’s Domestic Policy Council to help coordinate policy positions on education, housing, veterans’ affairs, law enforcement and education.  Ms. Stefanik graduated from Harvard University with honors in 2006 where she was one of three undergraduate women recognized by Harvard College Women’s Leadership Award.  While at Harvard, Ms. Stefanik served on the Student Advisory Committee at the Institute of Politics where she founded the Women’s Initiative in Leadership and Politics Program and chaired the National Campaign for Civic Engagement.  Ms. Stefanik also served as an Editorial Editor of The Harvard Crimson.  Ms. Stefanik is also the President and Founder of American Maggie, an online platform that aggregates and publishes writing by conservative women.  Ms. Stefanik is originally from Upstate New York.

CONTRIBUTORS

Charles W. Calomiris is Henry Kaufman Professor of Financial Institutions at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business and a Professor at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. He is a member of the Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee, the Shadow Open Market Committee, and the Financial Economists Roundtable, and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Professor Calomiris was a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, is a member of the Task Force on Property Rights at the Hoover Institution, and the Pew Trusts Project on Financial Reform. He co-directed the Project on Financial Deregulation at the American Enterprise Institute for over a decade.  Professor Calomiris served on the International Financial Institution Advisory Commission, a Congressional commission to advise the U.S. government on the reform of the IMF, the World Bank, the regional development banks, and the WTO. His research spans several areas, including banking, corporate finance, financial history, monetary economics, and economic development. He received a B.A. in economics from Yale University in 1979 and a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University in 1985.

William D. Eggers is an expert in public sector transformation. His newest book, If We Can Put a Man on the Moon... published by Harvard Business Press, examines the process of public transformation. He is the author of several books on government reform including the award-winning Governing by Network and Government 2.0. He is a former manager of the Texas Performance Review and director of e-Texas. He has advised governments around the world and his commentary has appeared in dozens of major media outlets including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Chicago Tribune.

Steve Goldsmith is the Daniel Paul Professor of Government and the Director of the Innovations in American Government Program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He is also the Vice-Chair of the Corporation for National and Community Service. He previously served two terms as Mayor of Indianapolis, America's 12th largest city, where he earned as a reputation as one of the country's leaders in public private partnerships, competition and privatization.  As mayor, he reduced government spending, cut the city's bureaucracy, held the line on taxes, eliminated counterproductive regulations, and invested over $1B transforming downtown Indianapolis. Goldsmith was the chief domestic policy advisor to the George W. Bush campaign in 2000. His publications include: Unlocking the Power of Networks: Keys to High Performance Government; Governing by Network: The New Shape of the Public Sector; Putting Faith in Neighborhoods: Making Cities Work through Grassroots Citizenship; and The Twenty-First Century City: Resurrecting Urban America. His next book on civic entrepreneurship is expected out next year.

Edward Lazear is a professor at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business and a Hoover Institution fellow.  Mr. Lazear served as Chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers and was at the White House from 2006 to 2009.  In his position as the chief economic advisor to the President, he advised on a broad range of matters that involve both the macroeconomy and microeconomic issues.  Mr. Lazear is a labor economist who is a founder of a field known as personnel economics.  His research centers on employee incentives, promotions, compensation, and productivity in firms.  He received his AB and AM degrees from the University of California at Los Angeles, and his PhD from Harvard University in economics.

Donald B. Marron is a visiting professor at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute and president of Marron Economics LLC. He also writes about economics, finance, and the federal budget at his blog: dmarron.com. From 2002 to early 2009, Mr. Marron served in various senior positions in the White House and Congress including as a member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers and as acting director of the Congressional Budget Office. Before his government service, he taught economics and finance at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, managed large antitrust cases at Charles River Associates, and served as chief financial officer of a health care software start-up in Austin, TX. He currently lives in Bethesda, Maryland.

John O’Leary is the executive editor of Better, Faster, Cheaper, a site dedicated to public sector innovation, and a Research Fellow at the Ash Center of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He is the coauthor of If We Can Put a Man on the Moon... Getting Big Things Done in Government, published by Harvard Business Press. He has held several leadership positions in Massachusetts state government, including Chairman of the Civil Service Commission and Chief Human Resource Officer. Mr. O’Leary can be reached at johnoleary@alum.mit.edu.

Phillip L. Swagel is a visiting professor at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, where he teaches classes on financial markets and directs the Center for Financial Institutions, Policy, and Governance.  Mr. Swagel served as Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the Treasury Department from December 2006 to January 2009.  In that position, he advised Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. on all aspects of economic policy.  He served as a member of the TARP investment committee, and was responsible for analysis on issues including housing, financial markets, healthcare, pensions, and macroeconomic forecasts.  He was previously chief of staff and a senior economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers; a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute; and an economist at the International Monetary Fund and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve.  He has taught class at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.  Mr. Swagel received a bachelor's degree in economics magna cum laude from Princeton University in 1987 and a master's degree in 1990 and a PhD in 1993, both in economics from Harvard University.