Board Member Profile
Fred L. Smith, Jr.
President, CEI
Fred L. Smith, Jr. is the Founder and President of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a public interest group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government active in a wide range of economic and environmental public policy issues. Based in Washington, D.C., CEI works to educate and inform policymakers, journalists, and other opinion leaders on market-based alternatives to regulatory initiatives, ranging from antitrust and insurance to energy and environmental protection, and engages in public interest litigation to protect property rights and economic liberty.
Mr. Smith is a frequent guest on national television and radio programs to discuss and debate regulatory initiatives. He has appeared on ABC's This Week, CNN's Crossfire, the MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour, ABC's 20/20, NPR's Talk of the Nation, and the G. Gordon Liddy Show, among many others. A prolific writer, his writings can be seen in leading newspapers and journals such as the Wall Street Journal, National Review, Economic Affairs, and the Washington Times. Mr. Smith is also columnist for the journal Regulation, and a contributing editor to Liberty. Mr. Smith is co-editor (with Michael Greve) of the book, Environmental Politics: Public Costs, Private Rewards, and has contributed chapters to over one dozen books, including The True State of the Planet, Market Liberalism: A Paradigm for the 21st Century, and Assessing the Reagan Years.
Before founding CEI, Mr. Smith served as the Director of Government Relations for the Council for a Competitive Economy, as a senior economist for Association of American Railroads, and for five years as a Senior Policy Analyst at the Environmental Protection Agency. Mr. Smith has a degree in Mathematics and Political Science from Tulane University where he earned the Arts and Sciences Medal. He has also done graduate work at Harvard, SUNY at Buffalo and the University of Pennsylvania. He married Frances (Bivona) Smith in 1963.