Americans for Prosperity Directors
Art Pope
Director
Art Pope is president and vice-chairman of the board of directors for Variety Wholesalers Inc., where he has served in various capacities since 1986. During that period, he was elected to four terms (nonconsecutive) in the North Carolina House of Representatives.
Mr. Pope's involvement in North Carolina policy making has also included serving as special counsel to the governor in 1985, running for the lieutenant governorship in 1992, and being chosen as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1992 and 1996. In addition, he serves on boards for numerous organizations including the John Locke Foundation, the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, and the North Carolina Retail Merchants Association.
Mr. Pope is a member of the North Carolina Bar Association. He received his juris doctorate from the Duke University School of Law.
James C. Miller
Director
Dr. James C. Miller is an economist who served as Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission between 1981 and 1985 and as Budget Director for President Ronald Reagan between 1985 and 1988. Dr. Miller earned a B.B.A. in economics from the University of Georgia in 1964 and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Virginia in 1969. Between 1977 and 1981, Dr. Miller was a Resident Scholar at the Center for the Study of Government Regulation at the American Enterprise Institute. From 1978 to 1981, he served as co-director of the center. Dr. Miller was the first Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (April - October 1981) and the Executive Director of Vice President George Bush's Presidential Task Force on Regulatory Relief.
He has been John M. Olin Distinguished Fellow at the Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation and at the Center for Study of Public Choice at George Mason University. He is also a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He has been a Member of the Boards of the Tax Foundation and the Progress and Freedom Foundation, and a member of the Board of Visitors of George Mason University. Miller is currently chairman of the Capital Analysis Group (CapAnalysis), a division of the international law firm of Howrey, Simon, Arnold & White and the U.S. Postal Service’s Board of Governors elected Miller to be its chairman in 2005.
Michael Wigley
Director
Michael Wigley is a turnaround specialist. Over the last 15 years he has bought and revitalized 15 small to mid-size companies and still owns 11 of them. He serves on the board of several public and private companies, including Sontra. Since 1989 Mike has been president and chief executive officer of Great Plains Companies Inc., a diversified holding company. His philanthropic causes have focused on education and conservative causes. He is a regent at Luther College and is on the board of advisors for the Institute of Technology at the University of Minnesota. He is a founding member of the Freedom Club, founder and chairman of the Taxpayers League of Minnesota, and serves on the board of the Center of the American Experiment. Mike holds BS and BCE degrees from the University of Minnesota and an MS from Stanford University, as well an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Americans for Prosperity Foundation Directors
David Koch
Chairman
David Koch is the executive vice president and a member of the board of directors for Koch Industries, Inc., based in Wichita, Kansas. He helped found Americans For Prosperity, and also serves on the board of directors for the Reason Foundation and the CATO Institute. David was the Libertarian Party candidate for vice president of the United States in 1980. He received his bachelor's and master's degree in chemical engineering from MIT.
Art Pope
Vice-Chairman
Art Pope is president and vice-chairman of the board of directors for Variety Wholesalers Inc., where he has served in various capacities since 1986. During that period, he was elected to four terms (nonconsecutive) in the North Carolina House of Representatives.
Mr. Pope's involvement in North Carolina policy making has also included serving as special counsel to the governor in 1985, running for the lieutenant governorship in 1992, and being chosen as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1992 and 1996. In addition, he serves on boards for numerous organizations including the John Locke Foundation, the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, and the North Carolina Retail Merchants Association.
Mr. Pope is a member of the North Carolina Bar Association. He received his juris doctorate from the Duke University School of Law.
Richard Fink
Director
Dr. Richard Fink is an executive vice president and member of the board of directors of Koch Industries, Inc. He is a director for several Koch companies including Flint Hills Resources, LLC, a refining and petrochemical company; and INVISTA, a global fibers, resins and intermediates company. Richard is also president of the Charles G. Koch and Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundations and a director of the Fred C. and Mary R. Koch Foundation. He was an executive vice president and an associate professor of economics at George Mason University. He served on the university's board of visitors from 1997 through June 2005.
In 1978 Richard founded what is now a George Mason program: the Mercatus Center. He is a member of the Mercatus board, which he chaired until 1990. In 1984 he founded Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation and its affiliate, Citizens for a Sound Economy. In 2003 the foundation became Americans for Prosperity Foundation, which promotes market-based policies in the states. He serves on the board of International Foundation for Research and Experimental Economics. He previously served on the American Prosecutors Research Institute, Consumer Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Board and as a director of the Tax Foundation, Reason Foundation, the Institute for Humane Studies, and Public Choice Center. He also served on President Reagan's Commission on Privatization. Richard earned his Ph.D. from New York University and M.A. from UCLA. He graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in economics from Rutgers University. He is married and has four children.
Debra Humphreys
Director
Debra Humphreys is a founder and current chairman of the Thomas Jefferson Independent Day School in Joplin, Missouri where she and her husband, David, reside with their five children. A graduate of New York University and former tax attorney with Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York City, Debra now focuses her efforts on her family, equestrian pursuits, and various philanthropic organizations.
Walter Williams
Director
Dr. Walter Williams is the John M. Olin Professor of Economics at George Mason University. He is the author of six books and more than eighty articles that have appeared in both scholarly journals and popular publications like Newsweek, National Review, and Reader's Digest. His weekly syndicated column is carried by more than one hundred newspapers. He is a frequent television and radio commentator and serves as a regular substitute host for The Rush Limbaugh Show.
Williams serves on several boards of directors and advisory boards, including the Hoover Institution, Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation, Landmark Legal Foundation, Alexis de Tocqueville Institute, Reason Foundation, Destiny magazine, and Cato Institute. He received a bachelor's degree in economics from California State University, followed by master's and Ph.D. degrees in economics from UCLA.
