United States District Judge, Middle District of Florida
John L. Badalamenti is a United States District Judge for the Middle District of Florida and a former judge on Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Criminology and Law with Highest Honors and a Master of Arts Degree in Sociology from the University of Florida, and a Juris Doctor with Honors from the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where he served as an editor for the University of Florida Journal of Law and Public Policy.
After law school, he accepted an appointment to the United States Attorney General’s Honors Program, serving as legal counsel to the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Atlanta. Judge Badalamenti served as a law clerk to both the Honorable Frank Mays Hull and the late Honorable Paul H. Roney of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He served for nearly a decade as an Assistant Federal Public Defender in Tampa. He represented clients in the federal trial and appellate courts and presented oral argument for the prevailing petitioner in Yates v. United States, 574 U.S. 528 (2015).
Judge Badalamenti serves as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where he teaches an originalism seminar.
Partner, Southbank Legal
Jesse is a trial lawyer who focuses on white-collar criminal defense, internal investigations, and complex commercial litigation around the country. Jesse founded SouthBank Legal’s white-collar practice and represents companies and individuals at all stages of investigation, litigation, and appeal. Jesse’s clients have included multiple Fortune 500 companies and corporate executives. He has tried several dozen federal cases to jury verdict and has handled numerous appeals, including successful arguments in state and federal appellate courts.
Previously, Jesse practiced at AmLaw 100 firms in Indiana and Washington, D.C., and as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of Indiana. During his 13 years as a federal prosecutor, Jesse led investigations into a wide variety of white-collar cases, including commercial fraud, complex tax violations, fraud involving Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBARs), tax-preparer fraud, securities fraud, student loan fraud, insurance fraud, mail and wire fraud, bankruptcy fraud, fraud by government contractors, and public corruption. Jesse held a Top Secret security clearance and received awards for his service from multiple federal agencies.
Jesse has served as an adjunct professor at the Notre Dame Law School, where he has taught in the areas of trial skills and criminal law. He also has coached high school mock trial, and his teams have won state tournaments and competed in the national competition. Jesse is a member of the Edward Bennett Williams American Inn of Court, an invitation-only professional organization focusing on white-collar practice.
Partner, Keller Postman
Ashley Keller is one of the founding Partners of Keller Postman LLC. An experienced trial and appellate lawyer, Ashley helps set strategic direction across virtually all of the firm’s cases. He represents clients in a wide variety of practice areas and types of claims, including product-liability, antitrust, class action, and arbitration matters.
Ashley is one of the leaders of Keller Postman’s national product-liability practice. He leverages his ability to detangle complex concepts and develop novel legal theories to support individual client matters and as counsel on numerous product-liability multidistrict litigation matters. He chairs the plaintiffs’ Law & Briefing Committee in the Zantac (Ranitidine) Product Liability MDL in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Ashley also litigates complex antitrust and class action matters. Among his notable cases, Ashley represents numerous States in antitrust litigation against Google for monopolizing products and services used by advertisers and publishers in online-display advertising.
Ashley also has played a central role in developing the firm’s pioneering arbitration practice, which includes pursuing individual arbitrations for clients whose claims are subject to arbitration clauses with class-action waivers. In part through managing the complexity of pursuing these individual claims simultaneously, the firm has secured millions in settlements for more than 500,000 employees and consumers.
Before launching Keller Postman, Ashley co-founded the litigation finance firm Gerchen Keller Capital, which grew to more than $1.3 billion in assets under management and was the world’s largest private investment manager focused on legal and regulatory risk prior to being acquired by Burford Capital in 2016.
Previously, Ashley was a partner at Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott LLP, The American Lawyer’s litigation boutique of the year. While there, he handled various trial and appellate matters involving multi-billion-dollar securities and patent cases, contract disputes, mass torts, and class actions.
Ashley also worked as an analyst at Alyeska Investment Group, a Chicago-based market-neutral hedge fund, where he focused on investments in companies facing litigation and other complicated regulatory matters.
Ashley was named a 2021 Plaintiffs’ Lawyers Trailblazer by the National Law Journal. He is also listed on Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Lawyers in America, Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Plaintiff Consumer Lawyers, Lawdragon’s Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers, National Trial Lawyers’ Top 100, and Illinois Super Lawyers.
Ashley was a law clerk for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy at the Supreme Court of the United States and Judge Richard Posner at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College, received his M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and received his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, where he graduated first in his class.
Levin, Mabie & Levin Professor of Law, University of Florida Levin College of Law
Professor Lynn M. LoPucki comes to UF in August 2022 from the UCLA School of Law where he taught Secured Transactions and Business Associations for twenty-two years. His Stakeholder Takeover Project is an effort to provide corporate stakeholders with the information they need to control corporations through markets. For example, the Project website ranks the S&P 500 companies by their greenhouse gas emissions. The UC Davis Law Review published the first Project article, Repurposing the Corporation Through Stakeholder Markets, in February 2022 and will publish the second, Corporate Greenhouse Gas Disclosures, in November.
Professor LoPucki has published more than seventy-five articles in highly regarded law reviews, including the Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, University of Chicago Law Review, University of Michigan Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Cornell Law Review, Duke Law Journal, and Northwestern University Law Review. He co-authors three Aspen Casebooks: Business Associations: A Systems Approach (2020) (with Andrew Verstein); Secured Transactions: A Systems Approach (9th edition with Elizabeth Warren and Robert M. Lawless), and Commercial Transactions: A Systems Approach (7th edition with Elizabeth Warren, Daniel L. Keating, Ronald Mann, and Robert M. Lawless).
Since 1994, the Florida-UCLA-LoPucki Bankruptcy Research Database has collected large, public company bankruptcy data and disseminated it to the public and to bankruptcy researchers throughout the world. Those data provided the foundation for Professor LoPucki’s books, Courting Failure: How Competition for Big Cases is Corrupting the Bankruptcy Courts (University of Michigan Press 2005) and Professional Fees in Corporate Bankruptcies: Data, Analysis, and Evaluation (Oxford University Press, 2011) (with Joseph Doherty).
Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Lockheed Martin Corporation
Kevin O’Connor is the senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary for Lockheed Martin Corporation. He is responsible for the Corporation’s legal affairs and law department, including serving as counsel to its senior leadership and Board of Directors.
Prior to joining Lockheed Martin, O’Connor was the senior vice president and chief legal officer for Carrier. He has had a distinguished career in both the private and public sectors. Prior to joining Carrier, Kevin served as chief legal officer for Point72, as vice president of global ethics and compliance at United Technologies (now RTX), and as a partner in two law firms. His public service career includes service as the Associate Attorney General of the United States, the United States Attorney for Connecticut, Chief of Staff to the United States Attorney General and Senior Counsel at the United States Securities & Exchange Commission Division of Enforcement.
Kevin began his legal career as a law clerk to the Honorable William H. Timbers of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. O’Connor earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame and a Juris Doctor from the University of Connecticut School of Law. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the University of Connecticut and as an independent director of Encompass Health Corporation.
Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP; Former Head of External Affairs, BlackRock
Dalia Blass is the Senior Investment Management Partner and a partner in S&C’s Financial Services Group at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. Her practice focuses on providing strategic and regulatory advice to asset managers, registered and private funds, fund boards and their service providers across the range of regulatory, governance, compliance, examination and enforcement matters they face. ry landscape facing asset managers.
Ms. Blass joined the Firm in 2023 from BlackRock, where she was Senior Managing Director, Global Head of External Affairs and a member of BlackRock’s Global Executive Committee.
Prior to BlackRock, Ms. Blass served as the Director of the Division of Investment Management at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Under her leadership, the Division of Investment Management finalized more than 70 regulatory initiatives to modernize the regulatory framework for investment companies and investment advisers, improve the investor experience through modernized disclosure and outreach efforts, elevate the standards of conduct for financial professionals, and re-evaluate the role and responsibilities of fund boards of directors. Ms. Blass was a member of the SEC’s senior-level COVID-19 Market Monitoring Group and contributed to the staff’s report on the U.S. Credit Markets Interconnectedness and Effects of the COVID-19 Economic Shock. She also co-chaired the Financial Stability Board’s Technical Experts Group on Money Market Funds. A summary of Division of Investment Management Activities under Ms. Blass is available here.
Ms. Blass previously served in a number of leadership roles in the Division of Investment Management for a total of 14 years at the SEC. She has received the SEC’s Distinguished Service Award and the Manuel F. Cohen Award and was also named in Barron’s inaugural list of the 100 Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Andrew Oldham is a Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Before ascending to the bench, Judge Oldham served as General Counsel to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, where he advised the Governor on a range of issues under federal and state law and managed litigation in which the Governor was an interested party. Before that he served as Deputy Solicitor General for the State of Texas, where he represented Texas in federal courts across the country, including twice before the United States Supreme Court. Before moving to Texas, Judge Oldham was an attorney at Kellogg Hansen Todd Figel & Frederick in Washington, D.C. His practice focused on appellate litigation in federal courts of appeals throughout the country. Before entering private practice, Judge Oldham served as a law clerk to Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., at the Supreme Court of the United States and to Judge David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He also worked as an attorney-adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice from 2006 to 2008. Judge Oldham earned a B.A. from the University of Virginia with highest honors, a Truman Scholarship for graduate school, an M. Phil., first class (with distinction), from Cambridge University, and a J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School.
Senior Advisor, Freshfields
Christine is a senior advisor in our antitrust, competition and trade practice with more than 25 years of public and private sector experience at the intersection of law, policy and politics. Based in Washington, DC, she counsels senior executives and boards of directors on how to navigate complex and evolving legal and regulatory regimes to achieve their desired business goals.
Most recently, Christine served as a Commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) where she helped shape policies and enforcement actions in the fields of antitrust, consumer privacy and data security and consumer protection. During her tenure, she also testified before the US Congress on several occasions and represented the FTC in bilateral and multilateral discussions abroad.
Before joining the FTC, Christine was a Senior Vice President at Delta Air Lines where she oversaw the carrier’s regulatory and international legal matters. Prior to moving in-house, she was a partner at two international law firms where she worked with clients to achieve regulatory clearance for multi-jurisdictional mergers and to defend businesses in high-stakes investigations.
Her broad sector experience ranges from aircraft and automobiles to veterinary services, video games and virtual reality. She has worked extensively in the highly regulated fields of airlines, healthcare and pharmaceuticals.
After leaving the FTC last year, Christine founded an organization to provide safe housing and comprehensive support services to survivors of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Freshfields provided pro bono services to the organization including corporate formation. She will continue supporting this organization alongside client practice.
Solicitor, U.S. Department of Labor
Jonathan Berry is Solicitor at the U.S. Department of Labor, in service to President Trump’s agenda to put American workers first. He leads the Department’s lawyers in advising the Secretary and agency leadership on all aspects of law and in representing the Department in court. He was previously managing partner at Boyden Gray PLLC, where he provided strategic counsel and litigated on issues at the intersection of law, politics, and public policy. Earlier, he headed the regulatory office at Labor, and also served at the Department of Justice, in the first Trump Administration. Mr. Berry served as a law clerk to Judge Jerry E. Smith of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and to Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Deputy Director, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission
Douglas C. Geho is a seasoned lawyer with extensive enforcement, regulatory, and litigation experience. During the first Trump Administration, Geho served at the Department of Labor as Counsel and Policy Advisor, and then Counselor to the Assistant Secretary for Policy, where he advanced efforts relating to regulatory and enforcement reform, worker safety and training, and additional Administration priorities. He then served as a lead attorney for the House Judiciary Committee and two of its subcommittees. He also managed investigations for the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Most recently, Geho served as an Attorney Advisor to Commissioner Melissa Holyoak, handling consumer protection matters for her office. He clerked for Judge Alice M. Batchelder on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Prior to his government service, Geho was a litigator in private practice. Geho is a graduate of Georgetown Law and Grove City College.
Solicitor, U.S. Department of Labor
Jonathan Berry is Solicitor at the U.S. Department of Labor, in service to President Trump’s agenda to put American workers first. He leads the Department’s lawyers in advising the Secretary and agency leadership on all aspects of law and in representing the Department in court. He was previously managing partner at Boyden Gray PLLC, where he provided strategic counsel and litigated on issues at the intersection of law, politics, and public policy. Earlier, he headed the regulatory office at Labor, and also served at the Department of Justice, in the first Trump Administration. Mr. Berry served as a law clerk to Judge Jerry E. Smith of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and to Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP; Former Head of External Affairs, BlackRock
Dalia Blass is the Senior Investment Management Partner and a partner in S&C’s Financial Services Group at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. Her practice focuses on providing strategic and regulatory advice to asset managers, registered and private funds, fund boards and their service providers across the range of regulatory, governance, compliance, examination and enforcement matters they face. ry landscape facing asset managers.
Ms. Blass joined the Firm in 2023 from BlackRock, where she was Senior Managing Director, Global Head of External Affairs and a member of BlackRock’s Global Executive Committee.
Prior to BlackRock, Ms. Blass served as the Director of the Division of Investment Management at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Under her leadership, the Division of Investment Management finalized more than 70 regulatory initiatives to modernize the regulatory framework for investment companies and investment advisers, improve the investor experience through modernized disclosure and outreach efforts, elevate the standards of conduct for financial professionals, and re-evaluate the role and responsibilities of fund boards of directors. Ms. Blass was a member of the SEC’s senior-level COVID-19 Market Monitoring Group and contributed to the staff’s report on the U.S. Credit Markets Interconnectedness and Effects of the COVID-19 Economic Shock. She also co-chaired the Financial Stability Board’s Technical Experts Group on Money Market Funds. A summary of Division of Investment Management Activities under Ms. Blass is available here.
Ms. Blass previously served in a number of leadership roles in the Division of Investment Management for a total of 14 years at the SEC. She has received the SEC’s Distinguished Service Award and the Manuel F. Cohen Award and was also named in Barron’s inaugural list of the 100 Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance.
Deputy Director, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission
Douglas C. Geho is a seasoned lawyer with extensive enforcement, regulatory, and litigation experience. During the first Trump Administration, Geho served at the Department of Labor as Counsel and Policy Advisor, and then Counselor to the Assistant Secretary for Policy, where he advanced efforts relating to regulatory and enforcement reform, worker safety and training, and additional Administration priorities. He then served as a lead attorney for the House Judiciary Committee and two of its subcommittees. He also managed investigations for the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Most recently, Geho served as an Attorney Advisor to Commissioner Melissa Holyoak, handling consumer protection matters for her office. He clerked for Judge Alice M. Batchelder on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Prior to his government service, Geho was a litigator in private practice. Geho is a graduate of Georgetown Law and Grove City College.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Andrew Oldham is a Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Before ascending to the bench, Judge Oldham served as General Counsel to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, where he advised the Governor on a range of issues under federal and state law and managed litigation in which the Governor was an interested party. Before that he served as Deputy Solicitor General for the State of Texas, where he represented Texas in federal courts across the country, including twice before the United States Supreme Court. Before moving to Texas, Judge Oldham was an attorney at Kellogg Hansen Todd Figel & Frederick in Washington, D.C. His practice focused on appellate litigation in federal courts of appeals throughout the country. Before entering private practice, Judge Oldham served as a law clerk to Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., at the Supreme Court of the United States and to Judge David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He also worked as an attorney-adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice from 2006 to 2008. Judge Oldham earned a B.A. from the University of Virginia with highest honors, a Truman Scholarship for graduate school, an M. Phil., first class (with distinction), from Cambridge University, and a J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School.
Senior Advisor, Freshfields
Christine is a senior advisor in our antitrust, competition and trade practice with more than 25 years of public and private sector experience at the intersection of law, policy and politics. Based in Washington, DC, she counsels senior executives and boards of directors on how to navigate complex and evolving legal and regulatory regimes to achieve their desired business goals.
Most recently, Christine served as a Commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) where she helped shape policies and enforcement actions in the fields of antitrust, consumer privacy and data security and consumer protection. During her tenure, she also testified before the US Congress on several occasions and represented the FTC in bilateral and multilateral discussions abroad.
Before joining the FTC, Christine was a Senior Vice President at Delta Air Lines where she oversaw the carrier’s regulatory and international legal matters. Prior to moving in-house, she was a partner at two international law firms where she worked with clients to achieve regulatory clearance for multi-jurisdictional mergers and to defend businesses in high-stakes investigations.
Her broad sector experience ranges from aircraft and automobiles to veterinary services, video games and virtual reality. She has worked extensively in the highly regulated fields of airlines, healthcare and pharmaceuticals.
After leaving the FTC last year, Christine founded an organization to provide safe housing and comprehensive support services to survivors of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Freshfields provided pro bono services to the organization including corporate formation. She will continue supporting this organization alongside client practice.
Chief Policy Counsel, Council on Criminal Justice and Senior Advisor, Right on Crime
Marc A. Levin is the Chief Policy Counsel for the Council on Criminal Justice (counciloncj.org) and Senior Advisor for Right on Crime.
An attorney and accomplished author on legal and public policy issues, Marc began the Foundation’s criminal justice program in 2005. This work contributed to nationally praised policy changes that have been followed by dramatic declines in crime and incarceration in Texas. Building on this success, in 2010, Levin developed the concept for the Right on Crime initiative, a TPPF project in partnership with Prison Fellowship and the American Conservative Union Foundation. Right on Crime has become the national clearinghouse for conservative criminal justice reforms and has contributed to the adoption of policies in dozens of states that fight crime, support victims, and protect taxpayers.
In 2014, Levin was named one of the “Politico 50” in the magazine’s annual “list of thinkers, doers, and dreamers who really matter in this age of gridlock and dysfunction.”
Marc has testified on criminal justice policy on four occasions before Congress and has testified before legislatures in states including Texas, Nevada, Kansas, Wisconsin, and California. He also has met personally with leaders such as U.S. Presidents, Speakers of the House, and the Justice Commtitee of the United Kingdom Parliament to share his ideas on criminal justice reform. In 2007, he was honored in a resolution unanimously passed by the Texas House of Representatives that stated, “Mr. Levin’s intellect is unparalleled and his research is impeccable.”
Since 2005, Marc has published dozens of policy papers on topics such as sentencing, probation, parole, reentry, and overcriminalization which are available on the TPPF website. Levin’s articles on law and public policy have been featured in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Texas Review of Law & Politics, National Law Journal, New York Daily News, Jerusalem Post, Toronto Star, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Philadelphia Inquirer, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Times, Los Angeles Daily Journal, Charlotte Observer, Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, Austin American-Statesman, San Antonio Express-News and Reason Magazine.
In 1999, Marc graduated with honors from the University of Texas with a B.A. in Plan II Honors and Government. In 2002, Marc received his J.D. with honors from the University of Texas School of Law. Marc was a Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow in 1996. He served as a law clerk to Judge Will Garwood on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Staff Attorney at the Texas Supreme Court.
Wayne A. Abernathy, Wild Bells
Wayne A. Abernathy is a former U.S. Treasury Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions under President George W. Bush, receiving the Alexander Hamilton Award in recognition of his service. In that office he was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation. Prior to his work at the Treasury, Mr. Abernathy served as Staff Director of the Senate Banking Committee, under Chairman Phil Gramm.
Following his service at the Treasury, Mr. Abernathy worked for 15 years on the staff of the American Bankers Association, as Executive Vice President for Financial Institutions Policy and Regulatory Affairs.
Previous experience with the Senate Banking Committee includes serving as Staff Director of the Subcommittee on Securities during 1995-1998. From 1989 until 1994, Mr. Abernathy was a Republican economist for the committee. He previously worked as a senior legislative assistant for Senator Gramm during 1987-1989 and as an economist for the Banking Committee’s Subcommittee on International Finance and Monetary Policy during 1981-1986, under Chairman Jake Garn.
Mr. Abernathy earned his bachelor’s degree in International Studies from The Johns Hopkins University in 1978. In 1980, he received a master’s degree in International Studies from the School of Advanced International Studies of The Johns Hopkins University.
Managing Partner, Federal Financial Analytics, Inc.
Karen Shaw Petrou is the co-founder and Managing Partner of Federal Financial Analytics, Inc., a privately-held company that, since 1985, has provided analytical and advisory services on legislative, regulatory, and public-policy issues affecting financial services companies doing business in the U.S. and abroad. The firm’s practice is a unique blend of strategic advice and policy analysis that does not include lobbying or any other projects that would compromise its objectivity and independence. This, Petrou believes, gives boards of directors, senior management and regulators the best advice on emerging issues on which to base their own strategic planning and advocacy.
Ms. Petrou is a frequent speaker on topics affecting the financial services industry. In addition to presentations to Congress, foreign legislatures and government agencies, she has spoken before such organizations as the Japanese Diet, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, various Federal Reserve Banks, the Economist’s Buttonwood conference, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, the American Bankers Association, The Clearing House, the Financial Services Roundtable, the Institute of International Bankers, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, the American Bar Association, the Brookings Institution, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the National Association of Manufacturers, and many other industry, academic and policy-maker audiences. She has also authored numerous articles in professional publications such as the American Banker and International Economy, as well as general-interest media like The New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Ms. Petrou appears frequently in the media as an expert on banking legislation and regulation.
Prior to founding her own firm in 1985, Ms. Petrou worked in Washington as an officer at Bank of America, where she began her career in 1977. She is an honors graduate in Political Science from Wellesley College and also was a special student in an honors program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She earned an M.A. in that subject from the University of California at Berkeley, and was a doctoral candidate there. She has served on the boards of banking organizations and sits as a director on the board of the Foundation Fighting Blindness and the Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation. She is also an advisory member of the board of the Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law.
Commissioner, United States Securities and Exchange Commission
Hester M. Peirce was appointed by President Donald J. Trump to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and was sworn in on January 11, 2018.
Prior to joining the SEC, Commissioner Peirce conducted research on the regulation of financial markets at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. She was a Senior Counsel on the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, where she advised Ranking Member Richard Shelby and other members of the Committee on securities issues. Commissioner Peirce served as counsel to SEC Commissioner Paul S. Atkins. She also worked as a Staff Attorney in the SEC’s Division of Investment Management. Commissioner Peirce was an associate at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (now WilmerHale) and clerked for Judge Roger Andewelt on the Court of Federal Claims.
Commissioner Peirce earned her bachelor’s degree in Economics from Case Western Reserve University and her JD from Yale Law School.
Co-Founder and CEO, Whole Foods Market
John Mackey, co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market, has built the natural and organic grocer from a single store in Austin, Texas in 1978, into a Fortune 500 company, which went public in 1992, and was purchased by Amazon in 2017. Today Whole Foods Market is a top U.S. supermarket with more than 500 stores and 95,000 Team Members across the U.S., Canada and U.K
While devoting his career to helping shoppers satisfy their lifestyle needs with quality natural and organic foods, Mackey has also focused on building a more conscious way of doing business. He was the visionary for Whole Planet Foundation to help end poverty in developing nations, the Local Producer Loan Program, which provided $25 million in low interest loans to help local food producers expand their businesses, and the Global Animal Partnership’s rating scale for humane farm animal treatment.
Mackey has been recognized as one of Fortune’s “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders,” Ernst & Young’s “Entrepreneur of the Year Overall Winner for the United States,” Institutional Investor’s “Best CEO in America,” Barron’s “World’s Best CEO,” MarketWatch’s “CEO of the Year,” Fortune’s “Businessperson of the Year,” and Esquire’s “Most Inspiring CEO.”
A strong believer in free market principles, Mackey co-founded the Conscious Capitalism Movement (http://consciouscapitalism.org/) and co-authored a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling book entitled “Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business” (Harvard Business Review Press 2013) to boldly defend and reimagine capitalism, and encourage a way of doing business that is grounded in ethical consciousness. Mackey cut his pay to $1 in 2006 and continues to work for Whole Foods Market out of passion to see the business realize its potential for deeper purpose, for the joy of leading a great company and to answer the call to service that he feels in his heart.
Most recently, Mackey has focused on returning to the company’s roots around healthy eating and lifestyle choices. A passionate advocate of healthy eating education, he laid the foundation for health and wellness programs for team members and customers. Mackey is co-author of The Whole Foods Diet: The Lifesaving Plan for Health and Longevity (Grand Central Life & Style 2017); and The Whole Foods Cookbook: 120 Delicious and Healthy Plant-Centered Recipes (Grand Central Life & Style 2018).
Mackey is an avid backpacker and long-distance hiker. He lives in Austin, TX with his wife Deborah.
Secretary, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Sonny Perdue came by his knowledge of agriculture the old fashioned way: he was born into a farming family in Bonaire, Georgia. From childhood, and through his life in business and elected office, Perdue has experienced the industry from every possible perspective. Uniquely qualified as a former farmer, agribusinessman, veterinarian, state legislator, and governor of Georgia, he became the 31st United States Secretary of Agriculture on April 25, 2017.
Perdue’s policies as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture will be guided by four principles which will inform his decisions. First, he will maximize the ability of the men and women of America’s agriculture and agribusiness sector to create jobs, to produce and sell the foods and fiber that feed and clothe the world, and to reap the earned reward of their labor. It should be the aim of the American government to remove every obstacle and give farmers, ranchers, and producers every opportunity to prosper. Second, he will prioritize customer service every day for American taxpayers and consumers. They will expect, and have every right to demand, that their government conduct the people’s business efficiently, effectively, and with the utmost integrity. Third, as Americans expect a safe and secure food supply, USDA will continue to serve in the critical role of ensuring the food we put on the table to feed our families meets the strict safety standards we’ve established. Food security is a key component of national security, because hunger and peace do not long coexist. And fourth, Perdue will always remember that America’s agricultural bounty comes directly from the land. And today, those land resources sustain more than 320 million Americans and countless millions more around the globe. Perdue’s father’s words still ring true: We’re all stewards of the land, owned or rented, and our responsibility is to leave it better than we found it.
Additionally, Perdue recognizes that American agriculture needs a strong advocate to promote its interests to international markets. The United States is blessed to be able to produce more than its citizens can consume, which implies that we should sell the bounty around the world. The relationship between the USDA and its trade representatives, as well as with the U.S. Trade Representative and Department of Commerce, will be vital. The work of promoting American agricultural products to other countries will begin with those relationships and will benefit us domestically, just as it will fulfill the moral imperative of helping to feed the world. Perdue has pledged to be an unapologetic advocate for American agriculture.
Under Secretary Perdue, the USDA will always be facts-based and data-driven, with a decision-making mindset that is customer-focused. He will seek solutions to problems and not lament that the agency might be faced with difficult challenges.
As a youngster growing up on a dairy and diversified row crop farm in rural Georgia, Perdue never fully realized that the blessings of purposeful, meaningful work would serve him as well as they have in life. When he was a young boy feeding the calves and plowing the fields, he was an integral part of the workforce on his father’s farm. As the son of a mother who was an English teacher for 42 years, he benefitted from her teachings as well – not just by instilling in him the beliefs he still holds dear, but also by lending him an appreciation and respect for language and proper grammar. But more than anything in his life, it was the family farm which shaped Sonny Perdue. He has lived and breathed the exhilaration of a great crop and the despair and devastation of a drought. He learned by experience what his father told him as a child, “If you take care of the land, the land will take care of you.”
The work ethic cemented in him by his farming roots has remained with Sonny Perdue throughout his life. As a younger man, he served his country in the U.S. Air Force, rising to the rank of Captain. After earning a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the University of Georgia, he put that training to use in private practice in North Carolina. As a member of the Georgia State Senate for eleven years, he eventually ascended to the position of President Pro Tempore as elected by his senate colleagues. As a two-term governor of Georgia, he was credited with transforming a budget deficit into a surplus, dramatically increasing the student performance in public schools, and fostering an economic environment that allowed employers to flourish and manufacturers and agricultural producers to achieve record levels of exports. He followed these accomplishments with a successful career in agribusiness, where he focused on commodities and transportation in enterprises that have spanned the southeastern United States. These experiences have proven invaluable in his current role as principal advocate for American agriculture and all that it serves.
Perdue is a strong believer in good government, in that it should operate efficiently and serve the needs of its customers: the people of the United States. As a state senator, he was recognized as a leading authority on issues including energy and utilities, agriculture, transportation, emerging technologies and economic development, and for his ability to grasp the nuances of complex problems. As governor, he reformed state budget priorities, helped Georgians create more than 200,000 new jobs, and promoted his home state around the world to attract new businesses. In 2009, the Reason Foundation’s Innovators in Action magazine recognized Perdue as a leader who “aggressively pursued new strategies to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of government and deliver better value at less cost to taxpayers.” In addition, he was named “Public Official of the Year” in October 2010 by Governing Magazine. To this day, his thoughts are never very far from the wishes of the citizens – the true owners of the government.
Perdue’s views on agriculture have always been shaped by his first-hand knowledge of all of its aspects, both as a farmer and as an agribusinessman. He appreciates the daily concerns and needs of American farmers, while also understanding the intricacies of global commodities markets. He is acknowledged as a national leader in agriculture, having served as a board member for the National Grain & Feed Association, and as President of both the Georgia Feed and Grain Association and the Southeastern Feed and Grain Association. Perdue has long-standing, close relationships with the leadership of the American Farm Bureau and has been recognized by the Georgia 4-H and FFA programs, among others, for his leadership in agriculture.
As the product of Georgia, a state where agriculture is the leading economic driver, Perdue recognizes that agriculture is an issue and industry which cuts across political party boundaries. He recognizes that the size, scope, and diversity of America’s agricultural sector requires reaching across the aisle so that partisanship doesn’t get in the way of good solutions for American farmers, ranchers, and consumers.
Perdue has been married to Mary Ruff Perdue for 45 years and has four adult children and fourteen grandchildren. He and his wife have served as foster parents for eight children awaiting adoption. Perdue remains a licensed airplane and helicopter pilot and avid outdoor sportsman.
Co-Founder & CEO, Eat JUST Inc.
Eat Just, Inc. (formerly Hampton Creek) is bringing healthier and more affordable food to everyone, everywhere. We believe that solving the problem means solving the problem for everybody—not just those who can afford it. Our technology, which is based upon understanding plants from every corner of the planet, enables consumers, food manufactures, and the largest retailers around the world, to offer better, healthier products, at a more affordable cost.
Constitutional Scholarship Director and Senior Legal Analyst, Pacific Legal Foundation
Anastasia Boden is Director of Constitutional Scholarship at Pacific Legal Foundation, where she leads the organization’s Supreme Court commentary and directs scholarly analysis in support of the firm’s litigation. She has represented entrepreneurs and small businesses nationwide in challenges to onerous licensing regimes, anti-competitive titling restrictions, Certificate of Need (“competitor’s veto”) laws, and other forms of unnecessary red tape that block economic opportunity.
Prior to this role, Anastasia developed nearly a dozen constitutional challenges to Certificate of Need laws across the country, helping spur legislative reform in Montana, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Her victories include a ruling invalidating Houston’s busking restrictions, multiple appellate decisions expanding access to the courts for civil rights plaintiffs, and the legislative repeal of Virginia’s happy-hour advertising ban.
Her writings on law and liberty have been featured in USA Today, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, Forbes, and more, and she has appeared on Headline News, CBS News, Fox News, ReasonTV, Newsmax, and John Stossel. In 2020, she was featured on Libertarian Party presidential candidate Jo Jorgensen’s Supreme Court shortlist.
Anastasia earned her BA with dean’s honors from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her JD from Georgetown University Law Center, where she was research assistant to Professor Randy E. Barnett—the “intellectual godfather” of the constitutional challenge to Obamacare. She is the co-creator of the podcast Dissed, about infamous Supreme Court dissents. She authors the biweekly newsletter SCOTUS Scoop and the column, “In Dissent” for SCOTUSblog.
Deputy Director of the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies and Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow in Energy and Environmental Policy, The Heritage Foundation
Nicolas (Nick) Loris, an economist, focuses on energy, environmental, and regulatory issues as the Deputy Director of the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies and Herbert and Joyce Morgan fellow at The Heritage Foundation.
Loris studies and writes about energy supplies, energy prices, and other economic effects of environmental policies and regulations, including climate change legislation, energy efficiency mandates, and energy subsidies.
He also covers coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear gas, and renewable energy policy and articulates the benefits of free market environmentalism.
Loris has testified before House and Senate committees. He has been published and quoted in major newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. His radio and television appearances include CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, and National Public Radio.
He is a prolific contributor to the energy and environment section of The Daily Signal, Heritage’s multimedia news organization.
Loris was promoted to research fellow in March 2016. He had been a senior policy analyst since 2013, and was named Morgan fellow the year before. The fellowship was endowed by retired real estate developer Herbert Morgan and his late wife, Joyce, of Arlington, Va., longtime proponents of free enterprise and limited government.
Before joining Heritage in 2007, Loris was an associate at the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, immersing himself for a year in a market-based management program.
He received his master's degree in economics from George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. He holds a bachelor's degree in economics, finance, and political science from Albright College in Reading, Pa.
Loris, who was born and grew up in Quakertown, Pa., currently resides in Washington, D.C.
Director, Center for International Trade and Economics and Mark A. Kolokotrones Fellow in Economic Freedom, The Heritage Foundation
Terry Miller champions free markets as director of two of The Heritage Foundation’s key research centers, Data Analysis and Trade and Economics, and as the think tank’s Mark A. Kolokotrones fellow in economic freedom.
At the Center for Trade and Economics, Miller focuses on research into how free markets and international trade foster economic growth around the world. He is editor of a signature Heritage publication, the annual Index of Economic Freedom.
At the Center for Data Analysis, Miller oversees the statistical and econometric modeling that underpins the think tank’s wide-ranging research programs.
Both centers are part of Heritage’s Institute for Economic Freedom and Opportunity.
Before joining Heritage in 2007 as director of the Center for Trade and Economics, Miller had a distinguished career in the U.S. Foreign Service. In 2006, he was appointed as an ambassador to the United Nations and U.S. representative on the U.N.’s Economic and Social Council.
Miller previously served at the State Department as deputy assistant secretary for economic and global issues. He headed offices at State devoted to the promotion of human rights, social issues, development and trade.
Overseas, Miller served in Italy, France, Barbados and New Zealand. He headed the U.S. observer mission to the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Miller did both his undergraduate studies in government and his graduate studies in economics at the University of Texas in Austin.
He and his wife, the former opera singer Deborah Miller, have three children.
Director, Free Trade Initiative, National Taxpayers Union
Bryan Riley is Director of NTU’s Free Trade Initiative.
Bryan’s background includes years of research on the impact trade has on people in the United States. He has led grassroots campaigns in support of initiatives like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and in opposition to special-interest efforts to get the government to pick winners and losers in the U.S. economy.
Bryan has been quoted in publications including the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He is also an in-demand speaker who travels the country explaining the benefits international trade and investment bring to Americans.
Bryan Riley grew up in Manhattan, Kansas. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Kansas State University and a master’s degree in economics from the University of Southern California.
Bryan first came to Washington, DC as an NTU intern during the Reagan administration, and he continues to champion President Reagan’s pro-trade vision for America.
Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow, The Heritage Foundation
Becky Norton Dunlop, a prominent leader, strategist, and counselor in the conservative movement, is The Heritage Foundation’s Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow.
Dunlop, who joined the leading think tank in 1998, holds the only policy chair in the country to be officially named for the 40th president. She succeeds Ed Meese, the U.S. attorney general under Reagan, who assumed emeritus status.
Dunlop oversees special projects, travels as an ambassador for Heritage, and works tirelessly to assure that the legacy of principles, policies, and practices represented by the life and service of Ronald Reagan remain in the hearts and minds of Americans.
Previously, Dunlop was Heritage’s vice president for external relations from 1998 until May 2016. She served on the Trump Transition team.
Dunlop was a senior official in the Reagan administration from 1981-1989 inside the White House, at the Justice Department, and at the Interior Department.
She served from 1994-1998 as Secretary of Natural Resources for the Commonwealth of Virginia in the Cabinet of then-Virginia Gov. George Allen.
As political director for the American Conservative Union from 1973- 1977, she was instrumental in organizing grass-roots activists for Reagan’s unsuccessful 1976 race for the Republican nomination and advised his successful 1980 nomination and general election campaigns.
From Reagan’s first inauguration in 1981 to 1985, her White House posts included Deputy Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel and Special Assistant to the President and Director of his Cabinet office. During Reagan’s second term, Dunlop served as senior special assistant to Meese, then attorney general, in charge of managing Cabinet-level domestic policy issues. She oversaw major policy reports on the environment, the family, federalism, tort reform, privatization, and welfare reform.
She completed her service in the Reagan administration as deputy undersecretary of the Interior Department and as assistant interior secretary for fish, wildlife, and parks.
Dunlop is one of the few of the insiders from the beginnings of the Reagan era who remain active in public policy leadership.
As Virginia’s natural resources chief, Dunlop worked to streamline, decentralize, and down-size agencies while protecting and improving the environment. She is one of the few “free-market environmentalists” to have headed a state agency and put ideas into action. Her book, “Clearing the Air” (Alexis de Tocqueville Institute, 2000), chronicles some of her experiences in advancing those principles.
In 2002, President George W. Bush appointed her to a part-time post as chairwoman of the Federal Service Impasses Panel. The seven-member panel resolves disputes between federal agencies management and labor unions. Under her leadership, it took on several hundred cases and eliminated backlogs.
Other current leadership roles include the boards of the Virginia Institute for Public Policy, the Reagan Ranch Board of Governors, the Reagan Alumni Association, the Association for American Educators and the AAE Foundation, the Council for National Policy and the American Conservative Union.
In addition to topics addressing conservative principles and their roots in the nation’s founding, Dunlop is a sought-after public speaker on the idea that personnel is policy; on energy, natural resources and the environment (including free market environmentalism); on federalism as a former member of a governor’s Cabinet; Capitalism and the Rule of Law, and on the Reagan administration (including the 40th president’s effective leadership style).
A graduate of Miami University in Ohio, she currently resides in Arlington, Virginia, with her husband, George S. Dunlop. The Dunlops are members of Oakland Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia.
George Priest: In Memoriam
The Federalist Society mourns the loss of Professor George Priest, a giant in the creation...
Panel One: The ESG Movement and Business Regulation: Go Woke, Go Broke?
John L. Badalamenti, Jesse M. Barrett, Ashley Keller, Lynn M. LoPucki, Kevin O'Connor
In recent years, the push for consideration of "Environmental, Social, Governance" criteria ("ESG") in government/regulatory...
Woke, Smoke, or Smart: Regulators Push for ESG
Dalia Osman Blass, Andrew Oldham, Christine S. Wilson, Jonathan Berry, Douglas C. Geho
Executive branch agencies such as the SEC, CFTC, FTC and others have recently used their...
Woke, Smoke, or Smart: Regulators Push for ESG
Jonathan Berry, Dalia Osman Blass, Douglas C. Geho, Andrew Oldham, Christine S. Wilson
Executive branch agencies such as the SEC, CFTC, FTC and others have recently used their...
Courthouse Steps Decision Teleforum: Jones v. Mississippi
Marc Levin
On April 22, the Supreme Court released its decision in the case of Jones v....
Engine of Inequality: The Fed and the Future of Wealth in America
Wayne A. Abernathy, Karen Shaw Petrou
In her landmark book, financial services doyenne Karen Petrou explains how, despite better intentions, Federal...
Capital Conversations: Hester Peirce, Commissioner, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Hester M. Peirce
Join us as Hester Peirce, Commissioner on the Securities and Exchange Commission, discusses the intersection...
Deep Dive Episode 140 – It Can Be Done Live: The Future of Our Food
John Mackey, Sonny Perdue, Josh Tetrick, Anastasia P. Boden
The creators of the award-winning documentary, They Say It Can’t Be Done, in partnership with...
The Importance of Economic Freedom During and After the Coronavirus Pandemic
Nicolas Loris, Terry Miller, Bryan Riley
The Heritage Foundation’s newly released 2020 Index of Economic Freedom confirms yet again the economic...
Capitalism and The Rule of Law
Florida International Student Chapter
Miami, FL