TEAM

Peter Schweizer • President •Peter Schweizer is the author or co-author of more than a dozen books, including both New York Times and Washington Postbestsellers. Three of his books have been entered for the Pulitzer Prize. His works have been translated into 11 languages. He is currently a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and served as a consultant to the White House Office of Presidential Speechwriting from 2008-2009.Peter’s books include: Throw Them All Out (Houghton Mifflin), which spent nine weeks on the New York Times bestseller list; Do as I Say (Not As I Do) (Doubleday), which spent eight weeks on the bestsellers list and was hailed by The Economist as one of the top ten selling political books on the planet in November 2005. His other books include Makers and Takers, Reagan’s War, and The Bushes: Portrait of a Dynasty, all published by Doubleday. The New York Times declared that The Busheswas “the best” of the books on the family, and Reagan’s War was called “profound and compulsive reading” by former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.His other books include: The Next War (co-authored with former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger) and Victory (Atlantic Monthly Press). He is also the co-editor of Landmark Speeches of the American Conservative Movement(Texas A&M University Press.)In addition to his non-fiction work, Peter is the co-author (with Caspar Weinberger) of the thriller Chain of Command (Simon and Schuster). Publisher’s Weekly, in a starred review, called it a “debut political thriller crackling with a chilling authenticity and riveting dirty dealing.”

Along with the printed word, Peter has produced two documentary films. He was executive producer of In the Face of Evil, an epic documentary based on his book Reagan’s War. The New York Post declared it “the must-see movie of the season…disturbing and deeply moving.” The film is a winner of the 2004 Liberty Film Festival. Do as I Say is also the subject of a documentary currently in production.

Peter has written or co-written more than one hundred articles which have appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, USA Today, National Review, Foreign Affairs, Canada’s National Post, Great Britain’s Daily Mail.

Peter is a former consultant to NBC News, where one of his stories won the Overseas Press Award for Investigative Journalism. He also served as a member of the Ultraterrorism Study Group at the U.S. government’s Sandia National Laboratory. He has appeared on dozens of television programs include ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, French national television, and the BBC.

Peter received his M.Phil. in International Relations from Oxford University and his B.A. from George Washington University. He lives in Florida with his wife, also an author, and their two children.
Rick White • Executive Vice President •Mr. White has over 27 years of public/private sector regulatory and compliance experience as a senior state regulator and consultant.

Mr. White has 25 years of experience with the State of Florida Division of Securities, including six years as the Director of the Division where he was responsible for all aspects of the Division’s examination, licensing, and enforcement programs for the Securities Industry. As a regulator, Mr. White also provided litigation and settlement support to the Division’s Legal staff on matters involving sales practices, market manipulation, and registration.

He was a Managing Director in charge of the Tallahassee, FL, office for Regulatory Services with Renaissance Regulatory Services, Inc., a full service-consulting firm that offers a wide range of regulatory and compliance consulting services to broker-dealers and investment advisers.

Mr. White received a Bachelor of Science in Finance and a MBA in Finance from Florida State University.
Stuart Christmas • General Counsel and Vice President of Legal Investigations •Mr. Christmas’s areas of expertise include: worker’s compensation insurance litigation, commercial litigation, transportation issues, agricultural issues, contract issues, and healthcare law. He has owned and operated a private law practice since 1994.

Mr. Christmas is licensed to practice in Florida and certified by the Florida Supreme Court as a Circuit Civil Mediator. He is admitted to practice in The United States Supreme Court, Florida Supreme Court, including all state courts, and The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Mr. Christmas received his Juris Doctor in 1985 from the University of Florida School of Law and has been an attorney and member of the Florida Bar since 1986.

Board of Directors
Stephen K. Bannon • Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of the Government Accountability Institute •Mr. Bannon is a former Surface Warfare Officer who served aboard the destroyer U.S.S. Paul F. Foster (DD964) in the Pacific Fleet. In addition, Mr. Bannon was a Special Assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations. Mr. Bannon is a former Goldman Sachs investment banker in their Mergers & Acquisitions Department. He has been a financier/entrepreneur in the entertainment and media industry for 25 years. He is currently the Executive Chairman of Breitbart News LLC the parent company of Breitbart.com.

Mr. Bannon is an award-winning conservative filmmaker who has written and directed such films as: Generation Zero; The Undefeated; Occupy Unmasked and The Hope & The Change.

From 2007-2011, Mr. Bannon was Chairman/CEO of Affinity Media, the world’s leading digital asset trading company with operations in Korea and China. Affinity Media was financed by Oak Investment Partners and Goldman Sachs.

Mr. Bannon is a graduate of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and holds a Masters Degree in National Security Studies from Georgetown University’s School of Government. In 1985, Mr. Bannon received his MBA from Harvard Business School with honors.

Mr. Bannon is a native of Virginia who now resides in Laguna Beach, CA. Mr. Bannon’s eldest daughter graduated from The United States Military Academy at West Point in 2010. She is a First Lieutenant and Logistics Officer with a combat engineering battalion recently returned from Iraq where she served with the 101st Airborne Division.
Owen T. Smith, Esq. is the Chairman of the Institute of World Politics Board of Trustees and Professor Emeritus at Long Island University and a businessman. Mr. Smith has served as chairman of the New York State Board of Elections (1991-1996), and directed the Center for Long Island Studies at Long Island University (1987-1995).

Mr. Smith has also been deputy county executive of Nassau County, N.Y. (1980-1987), chairman of the Nassau County Planning Commission (1976-1980), counsel to the New York Senate Committee on Crime and Correction (1972-1976), and counsel to the New York Senate Committees on Villages, Towns and Counties (1966-1972).

The author or co-author of more than 20 books and dozens of articles in legal journals, Mr. Smith earned his law degree from the St. John’s School of Law, and a bachelor’s degree in economics and government from Trinity College.
Ron Robinson has served as Young America’s Foundation’s president for more than three decades. Time magazine wrote that Young America’s “[F]oundation—run by a former Reagan Administration advisor, Ron Robinson—is now the nation’s largest advocacy group devoted to student politics.” Time referred to Robinson as one of the “seasoned generals of the right” who is leading the “diverse and well funded” generation of conservatives who are “winning battles on campus.”

Insight Magazine reported that under Robinson’s leadership, “Young America’s Foundation is leading the conservative charge to win the hearts and minds of impressionable college-age students…Indeed, the Foundation organizes so many programs on so many campuses that it’s difficult to find a conservative activist younger than 30 who hasn’t had some contact with its activities.”

Robinson has led the Foundation through two successful landmark Supreme Court victories for student rights, the inauguration and development of the National Conservative Student Conference and the National High School Leadership Conference held annually in Washington; and the Foundation’s effort to save Ronald Reagan’s ranch. 

Robinson is a native of Buffalo, New York. He received a bachelors of arts degree in political science at Canisius College and a juris doctor degree at The Catholic University of America. Robinson served as executive director of Young Americans for Freedom (1977-79), president of the United States Youth Council (1983-85), and president of the International Youth Year Commission (1983-84). He was an advisor to the U.S. Department of Education during the Reagan administration. He is also co-author ofFunding Fathers: The Unsung Heroes of the Conservative Movement (Regnery, 2008).

Robinson served as a trustee of the Philadelphia Society, is currently a trustee of The Phillips Foundation, a director of Citizens United and the Citizens United Foundation, a director of the American Conservative Union, and he is the vice-president of the Free Speech Defense and Education Fund. He also serves on the boards of the Strong Charitable Trust and the D.J. Findley Family Foundation.


Robinson is a member of the Virginia and U. S. Supreme Court Bars and resides with his wife, Michelle Easton, president of the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute, in Reston, Virginia.
Rebekah Mercer graduated from Stanford University with a dual B.S. in Biology and Mathematics in 1996 and an M.S. in Operations Research and Engineering Economic Systems, in 1997. She returned to New York where she was a trader for a financial firm before retiring to raise her four children. With her sisters, she owns Ruby et Violette, a gourmet cookie company.
Hunter Lewis is the former CEO of Cambridge Associates, a leading investment advisor to foundations and endowments, private wealth, and corporate and government entities. He is a former board of member of the World Bank.

Mr. Lewis is the author of six books, Where Keynes Went Wrong being his most recent work. He is also the co-founder of AgainstCronyCapitalism.org.

Mr. Lewis has served on boards and committees of fifteen not-for-profit organizations, including environmental, teaching, research, and cultural organizations.