Kent Lassman has served as president and CEO at the Competitive Enterprise Institute since 2016, overseeing strategy and operations for the free-market organization.
As president, Lassman brings to CEI more than 30 years of public policy, research, and executive management experience. He has held positions in nonprofit organizations, on advisory boards, at private firms, and public policy organizations. He is a member of the board of directors at the Center for International Private Enterprise.
Lassman’s experience includes testifying before Congress and state legislatures and participating in regulatory proceedings. His research has covered topics as varied as the federal budget and Progressivism in America, as well as environmental and telecommunications policy. He has appeared on numerous major news outlets including NPR, C-SPAN and Fox News and his byline has featured in the Washington Post, National Review, the Washington Examiner and more.
His previous roles included strategy, research, and communications at FreedomWorks, Citizens for a Sound Economy, and The Progress & Freedom Foundation. From 2003 to 2008, he served on the President’s Advisory Council for the State Policy Network. He was the founding director and on the faculty of the Institute for Regulatory Law & Economics. From 2001 to 2006, he served as an advisor to the Task Force on Telecommunications & Information Technology at the American Legislative Exchange Council.
Lassman holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy and politics from The Catholic University of America, with honors for work on market theory, and a Master of Public Administration degree from North Carolina State University. He is an avid triathlete, ran from rim-to-rim-to-rim of the Grand Canyon, and swam the Catalina Channel in California. He commutes on two wheels into Washington, DC, from Alexandria, Va., where he lives with his wife, children, and their rescue dog.