Pacific Research Institute

Pacific Research Institute
Founder	•  James North •  Anthony Fisher
Type	•  think tank •  research
Interests	neoliberalism
Sponsored by	Koch family foundations

Pacific Research Institute(PRI)'s mission is a free-market think tank whose roots lie in the formation of the Institute of Economics Affairs in London. In 1979, Anthony Fisher, the founder of IEA teamed with San Francisco businessman James North to establish the Pacific Research Institute[1]. At least one of the staff is ex-IEA. According to Rachel Maddow the PRI is 'a famous pro-tobacco ostensibly grassroots corporate front group that was funded by Philip Morris'.

Funding

The Institute has received some $4,676,800 in 88 grants since 1985, from the following 10 foundations[2]:

• Philip M McKenna Foundation
• Castle Rock Foundation
• Earhart Foundation
• John M. Olin Foundation
• Sarah Scaife Foundation
• Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
• Claude R. Lamb Foundation
• Carthage Foundation
• JM Foundation
• Charles G Koch Foundation
• David H Koch

It has received funding from Philip Morris. In 1998, a memo from Philip Morris’ Roy Marden was exploring “allies” for their Youth Smoking Programme (YSP). He wrote “I am vice chairman of this SF policy group. They have recently begun an effort on child development/reduction of welfare dependency/etc., & I could explore with them if/where YSP could be involved. We are long-time donors"[3].

Personnel

Principals

• Sally C. Pipes - President and Chief Executive Officer. In the Transition Team for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, on the National Advisory Board of the Capital Research Center. On the Board of Advisors of the San Francisco Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society. In 2003, she was a member of the White House Fellows Regional Selection Panel[4].

• Lisa Mac Lellan - Vice President of Public Policy. Ms. Mac Lellan was previously manager of the Environment Unit at the Institute of Economic Affairs in London, along with Roger Bate and Julian Morris.

• Dr. Steven Hayward - author of PRI’s annual Index of Leading Environmental Indicators, which is released each Earth Day. Published with the American Enterprise Institute, therefore it is not surprising that Hayward is the “Weyerhauser Scholar” at the American Enterprise Institute. He is also an adjunct fellow of the John Ashbrook Center and a former Bradley Fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

• Sonia Arrison - Director, Technology Studies - a regular columnist for Tech Central Station.com

Board of Trustees

• Lisa Gable – Chair - Guillermin Group
• Sally C. Pipes - President & CEO - Pacific Research Institute
• F. Christian Wignall - Vice Chairman - Capstan, LLC
• Thomas C. Magowan - Secretary/Treasurer - Club Minibar, Inc.
• Katherine H. Alden - Woodside Hotels & Resorts
• Samuel H. Husbands, Jr. - Emeritus
• Frank E. Baxter - Jefferies & Company, Inc.
• Clark S. Judge - White House Writers Group
• Katherine E. Boyd
• David H. Keyston - Emeritus
• Michael Carpenter - Altria Group
• Francis A. O’Connell - Emeritus
• Robert J. Ernst, III - Attorney at Law
• Daniel Oliver - Former Chairman, Federal Trade Commission
• James T. Farrell - The Fremont Group
• Brian S. Tracy - Brian Tracy International
• Peter C. Farrell - ResMed
• Richard A. Wallace - Freedom Communications, Inc
• Mark B. Hoffman - Commerce One
• Jean R. Wente - Wente Vineyards

PRI Fellows

Terry Anderson, Ph.D. - Senior Fellow in Environmental Studies, PERC and Montana State University.

 

Sponsor

Event	Description
Koch family foundations	Controlled by the billionaire Koch brothers, who finance the 'right' in US politics when they say the right things.

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.

References

• [1] http://www.pacificresearch.org/about/history.html
• [2] http://www.mediatransparency.org/search_results/info_on_any_recipient.php?274
• [3] http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/aqg37c00
• [4] http://www.pacificresearch.org/about/team.html