President, CEO
Mr. Guest became President and Chief Executive Officer of Consumers Union (CU) in February 2001 after a long career in public
service and the consumer interest, including 21 years as Chair of CU's Board of Directors. Consumers Union is an expert, independent,
nonprofit organization whose mission is to work for a fair, just, and safe marketplace for all consumers. CU publishes Consumer Reports and ConsumerReports.org. The organization was founded in 1936 when advertising first flooded the mass media. Consumers lacked any reliable source
of information they could depend on to help them distinguish hype from fact and good products from bad ones. Since then CU
has filled that vacuum with a broad range of consumer information and a succession of presidents serving as passionate and
outspoken consumer champions.
Mr. Guest continues that tradition, fighting on Capitol Hill and in the media for the consumer's right to know about, and
be protected from, unsafe and misleading products. Most recently, he implemented a new Internet advocacy program that empowers
consumers to communicate directly with their lawmakers and service providers about marketplace changes. Mr. Guest also serves
on the board of Consumers International, a global federation of 250 organizations from 115 countries.
As the CEO of one of the leading nonprofits in America, Mr. Guest has transformed the mission-driven organization into a multimedia
publisher with more than 7.5 million subscribers to CU's products and services and $200 million in revenue. He oversees a
staff of more than 500 who work at CU's 50 state-of-the-art labs in Yonkers, NY; 327-acre auto test facility in East Haddam,
Conn.; and three advocacy offices in Washington DC, Austin, and San Francisco.
Mr. Guest's public service career has spanned more than three 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 very first job for introducing him to one of his biggest influences in consumer advocacy. He worked
as the paperboy for Dr. Colston Warne--the first Chair of CU's Board of Directors and a leader in the consumer movement.
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