Our Team

Crane is Operations Manager for the Atlas Network. She began her career at the Cato Institute as assistant to the president and was responsible for coordinating the Institute’s move from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. She also managed the design and build for Cato’s current building. Crane previously spent five years as a manager for the Unisys Corporation, supervising tradeshows, corporate and customer meetings, advertising and publications. She holds a degree in education from the University of Alabama and studied business administration at the University of West Florida.

Gleba is Chairman and CEO of the Sarah Scaife Foundation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Prior to joining the foundation, he practiced corporate law, first with Kirkpatrick & Lockhart LLP in Pittsburgh and then with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP in Pittsburgh and Jakarta, Indonesia. Gleba received his J.D. cum laude and M.B.A. with high honors from Duquesne University and his B.S. in Industrial Management with University Honors from Carnegie Mellon University. Gleba is Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Heritage Foundation (Washington, DC); a member of the Board of Overseers of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University; a member of the Board of Visitors of the Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy Studies (Washington, DC); a member of the Board of Trustees of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (Wilmington, DE); a member of the Board of Directors of the American Foreign Policy Council (Washington, DC); and a member of the Council of Advisors of Saint Vincent College’s Alex G. McKenna School of Business, Economics, and Government (Latrobe, PA).

Greve is a professor at George Mason University School of Law and a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Prior to his position at George Mason University, Professor Greve was the John G. Searle Scholar at AEI. He has taught at a number of universities, including Cornell and Johns Hopkins, and has been a visiting professor at Boston College since 2004. Greve was a co-founder of the Center for Individual Rights, a public interest law firm, which he directed from 1989 to 2000. He has written widely on constitutional and administrative law, federalism, environmental policy, and civil rights. His publications include numerous law review articles and books, including most recently, The Upside-Down Constitution (Harvard University Press, 2012). Greve holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Government from Cornell University, and completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Hamburg. He is a frequent contributor to the Liberty Law Blog.

Sugg was an early member of the CEI senior staff serving in fundraising and policy roles. He worked with CEI throughout the 1990s until 1998. During that time, he fell in love with the ideas and mission of – and people at – CEI. In 1998, he returned to his home state of Texas, where he assumed the role of Executive Director for the Exotic Wildlife Association. Since leaving the EWA, he has practiced what he preached about free market environmentalism by managing family ranches in West Texas.

Gruffat is Managing Director of Weild & Co. in New York. Previously, he was a Managing Director with Galileo Global Advisors and Citigroup, both also in New York. Gruffat is a Governor of the American Hospital of Paris, a Director of the American Hospital of Paris Foundation, and a Founder of Institut des Libertes. He was recently nominated for a second three year term effective May 2017 to the Board of Trustees of United Way Worldwide headquartered in Alexandria, VA. Gruffat is a member of the Economic Club of New York, the Union League Club, the Hong Kong Club, and Cercle de l’Union Interalliee. He holds a Ph.D. in Public Law and a Master in Political Science from the University of Lyon, France. He attended the Stanford Executive Program at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business in 1987.

Jost is Vice President of Chandler Management Corporation, a multifamily real estate company which has bought and managed more than 6,000 apartment units in 23 complexes in Virginia, Florida, and Texas. She is a lifelong advocate of economic freedom, personal liberty, individual rights, and limited government. She has held leadership positions in countless political campaigns and civic organizations including serving as a founding member of the Human Rights Commission in Arlington County, Virginia. Jost received a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Affairs from George Washington University in 1984 and a Master of Business Administration from George Washington University in 1987.

Kent Lassman is president and CEO at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Lassman oversees strategy for the free market organization, including management of a team of policy, communications, and fundraising staff. Prior to joining CEI, Lassman spent eight years as vice president at a public affairs firm in Washington, DC, counseling clients on campaign approaches to issues ranging from telecommunications to privacy to biotechnology and state licensure. His past experience includes testimony before Congress, state legislatures, and in regulatory proceedings. His research has covered topics as varied as the federal budget and Progressivism in America, as well as electricity and tech policy. Having held positions in nonprofit organizations, on advisory councils, at private firms, and policy organizations, Lassman is a recognized expert in free-market economics and strategic marketing for the principles necessary for individual and economic freedom to flourish. In addition to previous roles in strategy, research, and communications at nonprofit policy organizations including FreedomWorks, Citizens for a Sound Economy, and Progress & Freedom Foundation, from 2003 to 2008, he served on the

Pohanka is president of Pohanka Automotive Group in Capitol Heights, MD. He started in the automotive business in 1973, working summers in his father’s dealership. He is a third-generation dealer. The company was originally founded by his grandfather in 1919 selling and servicing Chevrolets. Today, the Pohanka Automotive Group sells ten makes of vehicles at their locations in Maryland and Virginia. Pohanka serves on the board of directors of the National Automobile Dealers Association, representing the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area franchised new-car dealers. He previously served on the NADA board from 2001 to 2009.

Fred L. Smith, Jr. is the founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. He served as president from 1984 to 2013 and is currently the Director of CEI’s Center for Advancing Capitalism. His public policy research has covered a wide range of topics, including regulatory reform, free market environmentalism, antitrust law, and international finance and comparative economics. Smith’s current focus is bringing leaders in the business and academic worlds together to defend capitalism and craft narratives that highlight the moral legitimacy of free markets. His many published works include chapters in the books "Field Guide to Effective Communication" (2004), "Corporate Aftershock: The Public Policy Lessons from the Collapse of Enron and Other Major Corporations" (2003), "Ecology, Liberty, & Property: A Free Market Environmental Reader" (2000), "The Future of Financial Privacy: Private Choices versus Political Rules" (1999), "Environmental Politics: Public Costs, Private Rewards" (1992), and "Steering The Elephant: How Washington Works" (1987). His academic articles have appeared in journals such as Harvard Journal of Law and Economics and Knowledge, Technology,

Tren is a program officer for the Searle Freedom Trust, a grant making foundation that supports research and policy proposals that will lead to a more just, free, and prosperous society. Prior to working at Searle, he managed Africa Fighting Malaria, a non-profit he co-founded, dedicated to promoting policies to improve malaria control around the world, and in particular, to defending the use of public health insecticides. As part of his work he authored scholarly studies for numerous think tanks and academic journals. Tren was born and grew up in South Africa and was educated at St. Andrews University and University College London in the United Kingdom. He moved to the United States in 2006 and became a U.S. citizen in 2014.

Zywicki is George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law at the Antonin Scalia Law School, Senior Scholar of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and Senior Fellow at the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. In 2009, Professor Zywicki was honored as the recipient of the Institute for Humane Studies 2009 Charles G. Koch Outstanding IHS Alum Award. Since 2006 he has served as Co-Editor of the Supreme Court Economic Review. From 2003–04, Professor Zywicki served as the Director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission. He teaches in the area of Bankruptcy, Contracts, Commercial Law, Business Associations, Law & Economics, and Public Choice and the Law. He has also taught at Vanderbilt University Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, Boston College Law School, and Mississippi College School of Law.

Bill Dunn, an emeritus member of CEI’s Board of Directors, is Founder and Chairman of DUNN Capital Management, Inc., in Stuart, Florida. Mr. Dunn is a pioneer in the application of computer technology to portfolio management. DUNN Capital Management, founded in 1974, is today one of the most prominent and successful managers of futures-based portfolios. In addition to running his asset management business, Bill is actively involved in overseeing the research and development of new quantitative trading models.