Speaker biographies

Henry J. Aaron is the Bruce and Virginia MacLaury Senior Fellow in the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution. From 1990 to 1996, he was the director of the program. In 1977–78 he served as assistant secretary for planning and evaluation at the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. He chaired the 1979 Advisory Council on Social Security. Mr. Aaron is a member of the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the advisory committee of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, and the visiting committee of the Harvard medical and dental schools. He is a board member of Abt Associates and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Mr. Aaron was a founding member, vice president, and chairman of the board of the National Academy of Social Insurance. He has been a member of the boards of directors of the College Retirement Equity Fund and Georgetown University.

Andrew Biggs is the deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA), where he heads the agency’s representation to the Social Security Trustees Working Group and acts as secretary of the board of trustees. In March 2008, he will join AEI as a resident fellow. Previously at SSA, he was deputy commissioner for policy and associate commissioner for retirement policy. In 2005, he was associate director of the White House National Economic Council, where he focused on Social Security reform, and in 2001, he was a staff member of the President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security. From 1999 to 2003, he was a Social Security analyst at the Cato Institute.

Jacques Bouchard is a special adviser to the chairman of the French Atomic Energy Commission (Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique). Mr. Bouchard joined the commission as an engineer working primarily on pressurized water reactor technology and physics for fuel cycle applications. In 1982, he became head of the fast neutron reactor department in Cadarache. In 1990, he was appointed head of the commission’s nuclear reactor division. From 1994 to 2000, he was the director of the military application division. From 2000 to 2004, he was in charge of the entire nuclear energy sector at the commission. Mr. Bouchard was the president of the French Nuclear Energy Society from 2001 to 2003. He is a professor at the École des Mines de Paris and also serves on the boards of several companies. In November 2006, he was elected chair of the Generation IV International Forum, a gathering of twelve countries and the European Union involved in the development of future nuclear energy systems.

Richard Burkhauser is a visiting scholar at AEI and the Sarah Gibson Blanding Professor of Public Policy in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell University. His professional career has focused on how public policies affect the economic behavior and well-being of vulnerable populations, such as older persons, people with disabilities, and low-skilled workers. He has published widely on these topics in journals of demography, economics, gerontology, and public policy. As co-principal investigator of the Center for Economic Research on Employment Policy for Persons with Disabilities and the Center on Disability Demographics and Statistics, he provides technical assistance and presentations for government agencies, policymakers, and consumers on the employment and economic well-being of people with disabilities. He has been a member of the Ticket to Work/Work Incentives Improvement Act Advisory Panel, 2000–2002; the technical panel on assumptions and methods of the Social Security actuaries, 2002–2003; and the Social Security advisory board panel on a new definition of eligibility for disability benefits (2006).

Aart Jan de Geus is the deputy secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), where he handles the political economy of reform and preparations for the Ministerial Council meeting and the Executive Committee in special session. From 2002 to 2007, he was the Dutch minister of social affairs and employment, in which capacity he implemented individual responsibility–based reforms in the Dutch social security system. He also negotiated major national agreements with social partners on wages, social security reforms, and tax facilities for early retirement. Mr. de Geus chaired the OECD Social Policy Ministerial Meeting in 2005. From 1998 to 2002, he was a partner in an Amsterdam-based strategy and management firm, where he worked on health care, pensions, and human resource development. Mr. de Geus served as vice chairman of the executive board of the National Federation of Christian Trade Unions from 1993 to 1998, where he focused on social security, health care, pensions, labor markets, income policy, and education. He had been a member of the executive board since 1988. Prior to that, Mr. de Geus worked as a lawyer in the industry sector of the Christian Trade Union.

Kenneth P. Green is a resident scholar at AEI, where he studies air pollution and climate change, energy and the environment, transportation and the environment, and environmental chemicals. His work also includes analysis of Canadian environmental policy. He has authored numerous policy studies, newspaper and magazine articles, several encyclopedia entries and book chapters, and a textbook for middle school students entitled Global Warming: Understanding the Debate (Enslow Publishers, 2002). Mr. Green has worked on both U.S. and Canadian policy, first at California’s Reason Foundation, then for nearly three years at British Columbia’s Fraser Institute.

Eugene Hoeven is director of ICAO affairs at the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO), where he represents the views of the world’s air navigation services (ANS) providers at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Prior to joining CANSO, Mr. Hoeven served as assistant director for user charges for the Americas and ICAO at the International Air Transport Association (IATA), where he represented the airline industry on airport and air navigation services economics and charges-related issues. Mr. Hoeven led IATA’s participation at numerous ICAO conferences and meetings on air transport infrastructure economics, was a member of the ICAO ANS Economics Panel and the Airport Economics Panel, and was an alternate observer at the Air Transport Committee of the ICAO Council. He also represented the airline industry during the privatization of Canadian ANS and the establishment of Nav Canada. Before joining IATA, Mr. Hoeven worked at Bombardier on regional aircraft marketing and consulted for Schiphol Management Services on airport strategic planning and development. He started his aviation career with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

Martin Hoffert is professor emeritus of physics and former chair of the Department of Applied Science at New York University. He has been on the research staff of the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, General Applied Science Laboratories, Advanced Technology Laboratories, Riverside Research Institute, and the National Academy of Sciences. He was a senior resident research associate at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Mr. Hoffert has published widely in fluid mechanics, plasma physics, atmospheric science, oceanography, planetary atmospheres, environmental science, solar and winds energy conversion and space solar power. His research in alternative energy conversion includes wind tunnel and full-scale experiments on innovative wind turbines, photovoltaic generation of hydrogen, and wireless power transmission applied to solar power satellites. His present research focuses on energy technologies that could stabilize climate change, including space solar power. Mr. Hoffert is a member of the American Geophysical Union and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is also a consultant for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Versatility Software.

Anders Hultin is a cofounder of Kunskapsskolan, a system of private preparatory schools in Sweden. He was chief executive from 1999 to 2007. He is currently based in London, where he is working on expanding Kunskapsskolan internationally. Prior to cofounding Kunskapsskolan, Mr. Hultin worked as a political advisor at the Swedish Ministry of Education in the early 1990s, developing policy for introducing a new national voucher system. In the mid-1990s, he founded the Swedish Association of Independent Schools. Mr. Hultin has also worked as press secretary for the mayor of Stockholm, press secretary for Stockholm’s bid for the 2004 Summer Olympics, and director of marketing at online job search website Plenia.

Christina Husmark Pehrsson was appointed Swedish minister for social security in 2006. Within the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, Ms. Husmark Pehrsson is responsible for sickness insurance, pensions, the administration of social insurance, and Nordic cooperation. Prior to her appointment, she served as a member of the Riksdag Committee on Health and Welfare and the spokesperson on social policy for the Moderate Party. She has also been the chair of the local committee of the Moderate Party in Svalöv, a member of the War Delegation, a member of the Skåne Regional Council, and deputy chair of the Landskrona Health Care District. Ms. Husmark Pehrsson was a practicing nurse from 1969 to 2007.

Michael McMurphy is president and CEO of Areva NC, an industrial firm that offers services related to nuclear power generation. Mr. McMurphy is also president of Areva Inc., the Areva Group’s U.S. entity, and Areva T&D Inc. He has been an officer of Areva NC and its predecessor company, Cogema, since 1983. He was elected to his current position in 1988. Mr. McMurphy was on the board of the Nuclear Energy Institute for ten years and is currently on the boards of SGN, a French engineering company; several of the Areva Group’s U.S. and Canadian subsidiaries; and Shaw-AREVA MOX Services. Before joining AREVA NC Inc., Mr. McMurphy was in the Office of Chief Counsel for the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Operations from 1979-1983. He served ten years active duty in the Air Force and an additional ten years in the Air Force Reserves.

Matt Miller is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress; a columnist for Fortune; and the host of Left, Right & Center, a political week-in-review program aired on public radio stations. Mr. Miller’s first book, The Two Percent Solution: Fixing America’s Problems in Ways Liberals and Conservatives Can Love (PublicAffaris, 2003), was a Los Angeles Times bestseller. His next book, The Tyranny of Dead Ideas, will be published in January 2009. Mr. Miller is also a senior advisor to McKinsey & Co., where he works on strategic communications, health care, strategy, public sector, and nonprofit issues. He also works with the McKinsey Global Institute. Mr. Miller was senior advisor to the director of the Office of Management and Budget from 1993 to 1995. From 1991 to 1992, he was a White House fellow based at the Federal Communications Commission. Prior to his government service, Mr. Miller worked at McKinsey and was a senior vice president of Petrie Stores Corporation.

Robert Poole is the director of transportation studies at the Reason Foundation. Mr. Poole, an engineer by training, has advised the last four presidential administrations on transportation and policy issues. He founded the Reason Foundation in 1978 and served as its president and CEO until 2000. Mr. Poole is credited as the first person to use the term “privatization” to refer to the contracting-out of public services and is the author of the first book on privatization, Cutting Back City Hall (Universe Books, 1980). His articles on privatization and transportation issues have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, and other publications. He also writes a monthly column on transportation issues for Public Works Financing. Mr. Poole is a member of the Air Traffic Control Association and the Transportation Research Board’s Congestion Pricing Committee. He is on the board of the public-private ventures division of the American Road & Transportation Builders Association and is also a member of the Government Accountability Office’s National Aviation Studies Advisory Panel.

Nina Rees is the senior vice president of strategic initiatives at Knowledge Universe Education, which provides early childhood education and after-school tutoring and seeks innovative ways to improve primary and secondary educational outcomes. Before joining Knowledge Universe Education, Ms. Rees was assistant deputy secretary for innovation and improvement at the U.S. Department of Education, where she oversaw twenty-eight grant programs supporting 1,300 projects nationwide and coordinated the implementation of several provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act. Prior to joining the Education Department, Ms. Rees was a domestic policy advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney. She was also served a senior education analyst at the Heritage Foundation where she authored more than two dozen policy briefs and served as the foundation’s chief spokesperson on education. Her articles and op-eds have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. Ms. Rees also spent two years on the staff of then–representative Porter Goss (R-Fla.). She is on the boards of the Washington Scholarship Fund and the Greater Educational Opportunities Foundation.

Joshua Schank is an urban planner and director of the National Transportation Policy Study at the Bipartisan Policy Center. Mr. Schank previously worked as a consultant with Parsons Brinckerhoff, a transportation planning and engineering firms. He was also the transportation policy adviser to Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), for whom he worked on the most recent reauthorization of the surface transportation bill. Mr. Schank has also worked as an analyst at the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of the Inspector General and as a transportation planner at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York City. He currently serves as the president of the Washington chapter of the Transportation Research Forum. He has published numerous articles on transportation policy and planning and is the author of All Roads Lead to Congress: The $300 Billion Fight over Highway Funding (CQ Press, 2007).

Philippe Serain is in charge of public-private partnership business development in the United States at Vinci. He was previously the chief financial officer at the Group of Autoroutes Paris-Rhin-Rhône and, prior to this, director of infrastructure concessions at Vinci. He has also held various positions at the French Ministry of Finance and other ministries.

Ole Settergren is the head of the Pension Department at Sweden’s National Insurance Board. In his previous capacity as pension expert at Sweden’s Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, Mr. Settergren was responsible for developing the automatic balance mechanism at the heart of Sweden’s mid-1990s pension reforms that created the first automatically financially balanced pay-as-you-go pension program in the world, as well as private social security accounts. Prior to his service in the Swedish government, Mr. Settergren worked in the private sector as a financial controller, underwriter, and financial advisor. He has written numerous scholarly articles and publications.

Simon Steen is the general director of the Verenigde Bijzondere Scholen (VBS), the national association of independent schools in the Netherlands. He is a columnist for VBS’s monthly magazine. Mr. Steen is the founder and president of the Dutch Journal for Educational Law and Policy and has published several articles about “pedagogical entrepreneurship,” freedom of education, and parental choice in the Netherlands. He is also a member of the executive committee of the European Council of National Associations of Independent Schools and, until recently, chairman of the education committee of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). He has published articles about Dutch freedom of education in the VVD’s Liberaal Reveil journal. Mr. Steen was a cofounder of the European Platform for Dutch Education and till recently the first chairman of the board of this European Platform. He is member of the strategic committee for educational policy in the Netherlands.

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