President & CEO
Mr. Guest became president and chief executive officer of Consumer Reports in February 2001 after a long career in public service and the consumer interest, including 21 years as Chair of its Board of Directors.

Founded in 1936, Consumer Reports is the world's premier consumer testing, research, publishing, and advocacy organization with annual revenue of more than $240 million and more than eight million subscribers to its products and services. ConsumerReports.org is the largest subscription-based publication website, Consumer Reports is one of the top-circulation magazines in the U.S., and the organization's advocacy arm, Consumers Union, has close to one million online activists who advance its role as a national powerhouse in promoting pro-consumer policies and market reform at both the federal and the state levels. Consumer Reports' expert technical staff tests more than 3,000 products a year in its 50 labs and at its 327-acre Auto Test Center, producing the unbiased ratings and evaluations for which the non-profit organization is known.

During his tenure, Mr. Guest has transformed Consumer Reports into a multimedia publisher with a wide variety of digital offerings, including Consumer Reports Mobile, the Consumer Reports Mobile Shopper, which allows consumers to scan a bar code to get information at the point of sale, and versions of the magazine and its content for e-readers and tablets. Under his leadership, the organization has also launched several new initiatives including ShopSmart, a shopping magazine targeted at women; the Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center, which develops ratings for services like doctors, hospitals, and drugs; and a grassroots capability that has mobilized hundreds of thousands of concerned citizens to help pass landmark health and safety laws. In 2009, Mr. Guest oversaw Consumer Reports' acquisition of The Consumerist, an edgy consumer-empowerment and social media site with approximately three million visitors.

Mr. Guest has helped Consumer Reports achieve its success while being a vigilant steward of its core values and principles, including the refusal to accept advertising or free samples of any kind. All the products tested by Consumer Reports are paid for by the organization, and most are purchased anonymously at retail by a team of mystery shoppers.

He has also been a strong leader in the international consumer movement, currently serving as the President (Board Chair) of Consumers International, the global federation of more than 220 organizations from 115 countries that serves as the independent and authoritative global voice for consumers. CI's mission is to build a powerful international movement to help protect and empower consumers everywhere.

Mr. Guest's public service career has spanned more than four decades. After graduating from Harvard Law School and completing a Woodrow Wilson fellowship in economics at MIT, he worked as legislative assistant to Senator Ted Kennedy. In the early 1970s, Mr. Guest moved to Vermont where he served as Banking and Insurance Commissioner, Secretary of State, and Secretary of Development and Community Affairs.

Over the last 20 years, he has headed several public policy and advocacy groups including Handgun Control Inc. and the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, as well as Planned Parenthood of Maryland. He was also the founding Executive Director of the American Pain Foundation, a national consumer information, education, and advocacy organization for pain prevention and management.

Mr. Guest credits his first job for introducing him to one of his biggest influences in consumer advocacy. He worked as the paperboy for Dr. Colston Warne--one of the founders of Consumer Reports and Consumers International and a pioneering leader in the national and international consumer movements.

Chief Operating Officer                                                                                        Laurence Bunin oversees the day-to-day operations of Consumer Reports and leads execution of the driving strategies for the organization's strategic plan including annual operating plans. Areas that report to Mr. Bunin at Consumer Reports include Publishing, Editorial, Tech, Survey Research, Communications, Customer Relations, Information Technology, Information Services, and Health.

Mr. Bunin is an experienced executive with a 20-year track record of creating and executing digital strategies and delivering consumer-based information products and services. He previously worked for Consumer Reports as a consultant and also is a former member of its Board of Directors. An electrical engineer by training, Mr. Bunin has served in management positions overseeing a variety of functions including information technology and operations, new product development, product management, marketing, customer service, quality improvement, communications, and crisis management.

Mr. Bunin previously served as Senior Vice President for College Success, as well as Senior Vice President for Operations and Customer Service at the not-for-profit College Board. In addition, he was the founder and CEO of his own digitally focused consulting firm, Handshake Dynamics LLC. Handshake Dynamics offered strategic consulting for media-publishing companies. Its clients included Hearst Corporation, McGraw-Hill Companies, Meredith Corporation, Zagat Survey, and Consumer Reports. Mr. Bunin was one of the chief architects of the business plan that helped lay the foundation for the successful growth of ConsumerReports.org.

Before Handshake, he worked for Hearst Corporation's New Media & Technology unit as Director of Operations. Previously, Mr. Bunin was the Director of Communications at The New York Times Information Services Group, managing operations and technology for divisions such as its newswire service and The New York Times Syndicate.

A New Jersey native, Mr. Bunin is a graduate of Yale University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering. He lives in New York City, where he enjoys all types of music (ranging from opera to jazz to pop), and spends free time playing golf and tennis.

Vice President, Health Programs
Paige Amidon oversees the organization’s efforts to provide test-driven, unbiased information for today’s number one consumer issue: the delivery of quality health care. As part of Consumer Reports’ commitment to provide high quality evidence-based information to consumers, Ms. Amidon has ongoing responsibility for and has overseen the:

• Creation of the Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center.
• Launch of expanded health content on ConsumerReports.org.
• Growth of the Consumer Reports on Health newsletter to one of the largest monthly print newsletters of its kind with over a half million subscribers.

She is also a Public Director of the Board of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), where she serves on several committees.

 Ms. Amidon has held various executive positions at Consumer Reports. Previously, as General Manager of Product and Market Development and Multimedia Information Products, Ms. Amidon managed Consumer Reports’ premium online and print products, while directing the franchise, brand, and new product development for Consumer Reports Health, Finance, and Automotive products portfolios. Before that, as chief marketing officer for ConsumerReports.org, Ms. Amidon launched the second generation of the world’s largest consumer-paid subscription website.

Prior to joining Consumer Reports in 1995, Ms. Amidon spent her career researching consumer needs and building successful new information products. As a partner in Amidon/Litman Associates, Ms. Amidon led projects to develop interactive products leveraging new online, telephone, and cable television-based information and entertainment systems.

Ms. Amidon has a Master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from New York University.

Vice President, Chief Information Officer
Rahul Belani joined Consumer Reports in the winter of 2006, bringing with him a strong background in the transformation of information/content providers from traditional hard copy book publishers to electronic information consultants.

In his role as vice president and chief information officer and as a member of the Senior Leadership Team he has both strategic and operational responsibilities of the technology function. Mr. Belani has transformed IT into a strategic business partner developing a technology strategy to assess and uncover opportunities for improvement in the current IT platform and architecture, identifying relevant new technologies, and determining applicability to the organization's long-term needs while understanding organizational complexity and working across organizational boundaries.

His key areas of responsibility include:

• Digital Media Technologies (Real-time dynamic digital publishing platforms, Web Development/Engineering, Mobile, Tablets, etc.), back-end Content Management Systems, Data Visualization, Content and Services APIs, SEO, Search, Subscription service and eCommerce, Web Analytics, Advertising Servers.
• IT Infrastructure and Operations (Networks and Desktops Services), Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity, Risk Management, Network and System Administration, Infrastructure Hosting, ITIL implementation, Virtualization and Cloud Computing.
• IT Security including policies and standards, PCI compliance, and ensuring that it meets the needs of the business and its regulatory requirements
• Project Management Office and outsourcing/off-shoring vendor management
• Quality Assurance by applying a combination of automated and manual processes to introduce world-class QA to all internal developments.

Prior to joining Consumer Reports, Mr. Belani was a member of the Executive Board of Jane's Information Group (a high-end information source in the world of defense, geopolitics, transport and police based in the U.K.). As senior vice president and chief technology officer at Jane's, Mr. Belani headed all aspects of technology including Infrastructure Operations (networks and desktops), Web and e-Commerce Development, Content Management Systems (CMS), Business Information Systems, Electronic Product Development, and Electronic Publishing. In addition, he designed, developed and managed the implementation of several new initiatives and integrated them with existing processes. Working in collaboration with his colleagues, Mr. Belani creatively used technology and designed several successful process improvements that resulted in streamlined work systems and procedures.

Mr. Belani's personal mission has been to continuously find new technologies and creatively use them to help businesses transform themselves. Translating these complex technical programs into simple non-technical solutions is one of his strengths and passions.

Mr. Belani has a Master's degree in Computer Science, Software and Systems from The George Washington University in Washington, DC, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Statistics from the M.G. Science Institute in India. In addition, he has participated in the Information Technology Leadership Program for Executive Development with Santa Clara University in San Jose, CA and The Thomson Executive Leadership Development Program, at Thomson

Vice President, Operations
Carolyn Clifford-Ferrara oversees the Operations division, which manages day-to-day operational and production work in support of Consumer Reports' products, programs, and services, and provides support and improvement services to other Consumer Reports divisions in disciplines such as continuous improvement, quality, and statistics.

An electrical engineer by training, Ms. Clifford-Ferrara has been at Consumer Reports for 20 years, beginning in the electronics department testing audio and computer products. She was promoted over the years to manage various departments in the Technical Division, and then to a senior director position where she managed content quality and planning. During her tenure at Consumer Reports, she has led the way in the development of processes and tools to bring more high quality content on a greater number of products more quickly to consumers that appear on ConsumerReports.org. Ms. Clifford-Ferrara oversaw the Technical Division's testing and content collaboration with Consumer Reports' overseas partners in the International Consumer Research and Testing organization. She has led Consumer Reports’ recent explorations into launching products in China and Latin America.

Ms. Clifford-Ferrara received her Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, NY.

Vice President, Executive Operations
Michael D'Alessandro is vice president, Executive Operations, and President Jim Guest's chief of staff at Consumer Reports. In his role, Mr. D'Alessandro serves as the president's primary day-to-day liaison with the senior management team and the board of directors and works to coordinate his external and internal activities. He also is responsible for three key service divisions within the organization—Executive Office, Legal, and Human Resources in addition to the President's Executive Office.

Prior to being promoted into this position, he served as vice president of Information Technology for seven years. During his tenure, the organization successfully upgraded its network infrastructure to accommodate the growth of ConsumerReports.org. Previously, Mr. D'Alessandro had been Consumer Reports' director of Customer Relations since 1994, when he first joined the organization. During that time, he improved and modernized Customer Relations by using innovative technology to better target the needs of Consumer Reports subscribers: In 2010, Customer Relations handled more than 850,000 inquiries. Mr. D'Alessandro is a member of the Board of Directors for the Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals International, whose mission is to develop experts who add business value through customer engagement.

Before joining Consumer Reports in 1994, Mr. D'Alessandro worked for Xerox Corporation. While at Xerox, he established and managed the Customer Service Operations for the New York tri-state area — a model operation that was later implemented throughout the corporation. He also held the position of financial controller for Xerox's Northeast Customer Administration Center.

Mr. D'Alessandro received his Bachelors in Marketing from Iona College in New Rochelle, NY

Vice President, Development
Heather Dennis heads up all aspects of Consumer Reports’ direct mail, online, telemarketing, grants, planned giving and major donor operations. In addition, she supervises the direct mail fundraising team, as well as the development team.

Prior to joining Consumer Reports, Ms. Dennis served as vice president for development at Keep America Beautiful, where she secured more than $2 million in gifts to set up their first-ever endowment fund and a total of $9 million overall. She also served as director of development and public relations for the American Red Cross in Greenwich, Conn.; as the chief development officer for the New York State Historical Association; and as the director of alumni relations and annual giving at Iona College.

Ms. Dennis is a graduate of Hartwick College. She lives in Greenwich, Conn., with her husband and two stepchildren. She also volunteers on the Board of the Alumnae Association for Greenwich Academy, Our Companions Animal Sanctuary, and the Junior League of Greenwich.

Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
Richard Gannon is responsible for overseeing the organization's financial, procurement, risk management activities, and respective operations including accounting, investment management, business planning and analysis, treasury, financial systems, facilities, and purchasing.

Before joining Consumer Reports in 2003, Mr. Gannon worked for Gartner Inc., a leading global IT research and advisory firm in Stamford, Conn. As senior vice president and chief operating officer of Research and Advisory Services, he was responsible for overseeing operational and financial initiatives of diverse business units. He was also responsible for forecasting activities, project management, strategy development and managing cross-business initiatives.

Prior to his role as SVP/COO at Gartner, Mr. Gannon served as senior vice president and chief financial officer, North America. In that role, he was responsible for managing all corporate and North American financial operations including business planning and analysis, budgeting, accounting, client financial services, management and SEC reporting, tax, treasury, and financial systems.

Before joining Gartner in 1996, Mr. Gannon spent twelve years in public accounting, the last eight with Price Waterhouse LLP in the New York-metro region.

Mr. Gannon is a CPA and a graduate of the University of Connecticut, located in Storrs, where he earned his B.S. degree in Accounting.

Vice President, General Counsel
Eileen Hershenov heads the organization's legal department, providing legal advice and representation on a wide range of issues, ranging from not-for-profit law compliance to managing litigation. She also oversees the work of outside counsel.

Before joining Consumer Reports in 2005, Ms. Hershenov spent eleven years with the Open Society Institute (OSI) network, the international group of private foundations created and funded by financier and philanthropist George Soros. For most of that time she served as the network's General Counsel, heading an in-house legal department, and advising affiliated foundations and programs in nearly 50 countries worldwide. She also served as the General Counsel to the Central European University, a New York State-accredited graduate university with a principal campus in Budapest, Hungary, and as counsel to the Baltic-American Partnership Fund, a grant-making partnership between the U.S. Government and OSI.

From 1992 to 1994, Ms. Hershenov was a litigation associate with the law firm of Morrison & Foerster in New York, focusing on intellectual property and antitrust litigation, as well as on pro bono litigation for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the National Organization of Women (NOW) Legal Defense Fund and individual plaintiffs in employment discrimination cases. Prior to that, she served as a Karpatkin Fellow with the ACLU after completing a year as a law clerk to U.S. District Court Judge Jack B. Weinstein.

Before law school, she worked as an organizer and advocate for the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), where she led a statewide campaign to change the New York State statute of limitations law so that victims of toxic substances such as asbestos or the drug DES could sue manufacturers in instances where injury manifested many years after the last exposure.

A member of the New York State Bar, she is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School. She is the author of "The Effect of Equity on Mass Tort Law" (1991, with Judge Jack B. Weinstein) and "Hostage to the Drug War: The National Purse, the Constitution and the Black Community" (1991, with John A. Powell). She lives in Westchester County with her husband, a writer, and two children.

Vice President and Technical Director
Liam McCormack is responsible for all consumer-product testing at Consumer Reports, overseeing the staff and operations in more than 50 specialized labs at Consumer Reports' National Testing and Research Center in Yonkers, NY. He also oversees operations at Consumer Reports' 327-acre Auto Test Center in East Haddam, Conn.; the largest independent consumer automobile testing center in the world.

He previously spent an 18-year tenure at Which?, where he was the organization's head of research. Which? is the United Kingdom's pre-eminent product testing, research, and consumer advocacy organization that, like Consumer Reports, produces a monthly magazine, website and other publications and advocates on consumer policy issues.

As head of research at Which?, he oversaw the development of technical and research content for Which? magazine, its website, and other Which? information products. Mr. McCormack worked closely with laboratory staff to develop and refine test processes and methodologies and was responsible for the accuracy and integrity of the results.

Early in his career, Mr. McCormack specialized in topics including car safety and security. He conducted undercover investigations of the service standards at garages and tire repair shops. As a researcher, he conducted one of the UK's first tests of the standard of advice given by lawyers on consumer issues, concluding that only a small fraction got it right. This research caused a major stir among the public and legal profession. Throughout his career, Mr. McCormack has been driven by a passion to ensure that consumers are treated fairly by the companies and professionals they deal with in their day-to-day lives.

Prior to joining Which?, Mr. McCormack served in the UK's Office of Fair Trading, a government department established to improve the welfare of consumers.

Vice President, External Affairs
Chris Meyer oversees Development, External Relations, and Consumer Reports' advocacy division, Consumers Union. Consumers Union works for health reform, financial reform, food and product safety, energy-policy reform, media reform, and other consumer issues in Washington, D.C., all of the states, and in the marketplace.

In addition to staff at Consumer Reports’ national headquarters in Yonkers, N.Y., Mr. Meyer manages the advocates and attorneys of Consumer Reports’ regional offices in Washington, D.C.; Austin, Texas, and San Francisco. Mr. Meyer has been responsible for a number of innovations, including the development of a database of over 950,000 e-activists that have played critical roles in passage of state legislation, and landmark federal laws reforming the country's health care system, food safety, credit card rules and the nation's product-safety laws.

Prior to his promotion to vice president for External Affairs, Mr. Meyer was senior director for Public Policy and Advocacy. In his current position, he also serves on Consumer Reports' Operations Committee, which provides the president and CEO with monthly counsel on all publishing, advocacy, and budget matters.

Before joining the organization in October 2004, he worked for two decades as an organizer, lobbyist and, from 1997 to 2004, as Executive Director of the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), New York State's largest consumer, environmental and government reform organization. He developed an expertise on public-health issues, including lead-poisoning prevention, drinking-water quality, and tobacco control. Mr. Meyer oversaw statewide campaigns on increased higher-education funding and the successful 1996 environmental bond initiative. He was lead lobbyist on efforts to defeat construction of garbage-burning incinerators in New York City in the early 1990's. In 1993 he was named "Best Lobbyist" by New York Magazine.

A graduate of Haverford College and the New York University School of Law, Mr. Meyer and his wife, Susan Stamler, reside in Brooklyn with their two daughters.

Vice President, Communications
Ken Weine manages communications and media strategy for Consumer Reports publications, the Consumerist website, and for the advocacy campaigns of Consumers Union. He also directs Consumer Reports' syndicated television, radio, newspaper products and Consumer Reports en Español, and oversees internal communications. Mr. Weine is a member of Consumer Reports' Senior Leadership Team, and helps lead the organization's branding efforts.

Before joining Consumer Reports in 2006, Mr. Weine worked for more than six years at Newsweek. As Communications Director, he managed publicity for Newsweek's U.S. and international editions and for Newsweek.com. His tenure also included managing the Creative Services department, which created all messaging and marketing materials for the worldwide sales staff.

A lawyer and political organizer by training, Mr. Weine previously was a staff attorney and the communications director at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. There, his writings on campaign-finance reform appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times.

Mr. Weine is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (Yeshiva University). He lives with his wife and two children in New York City.

Vice President, Human Resources
In her role as vice president, Linda Tepedino's focus is on Human Resources strategic planning and operations to support Consumer Reports' mission. This means providing the programs, processes and resources necessary for Consumer Reports to accomplish its strategic plan, and developing the human resources solutions to business problems – while providing excellent employee services, benefits, and rewards.

Previously, Ms. Tepedino was Vice President, Corporate Human Resources for The New York Times Company. In this role, she was responsible for human resources planning and operations for The New York Times Company's corporate groups, including a Research and Development team, a Shared Services Center and growing businesses such as About.com. In addition, she created two Centers of Excellence: one focused on recruiting and talent acquisition and another focused on the human resources aspects of corporate acquisitions. In her first role at The Times, Ms. Tepedino was Vice President of Human Resources for The New York Times Company's Digital Operations group, including the number one newspaper site on the web, NYTimes.com, the local market leader Boston.com, and About.com, a leading online source of consumer information and advice.

Ms. Tepedino has worked in Human Resources for over 25 years, specializing in directing Human Resources planning and operations for subsidiaries, start-ups, and acquisitions in media organizations. She previously worked at Reuters, where she helped integrate a family-owned business, Lipper Inc., into a large, global organization; and The Walt Disney Company, where she was Director of Human Resources for Disney Publishing. From 1989 to 1994 she held various positions within The Readers Digest Association, including head of Human Resources for RD Publications, a start-up operation built from special interest magazine acquisitions. Ms. Tepedino also held the position of Associate Director, International Human Resources, where she was responsible for much of Reader's Digests' European Human Resources group. Previously, while with Reed Publishing, she managed Human Resources for a group of Cahner's Publishing trade magazines as well as RR Bowker, a database publisher. She started her career at The Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A.

Ms. Tepedino holds a B.A. in Organizational Behavior and Communication from New York University. She studied Conflict Resolution at Columbia University's School of International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution, and is a certified mediator.