Michael Huffington

Michael Huffington has a distinguished career as a dedicated public servant, successful business executive and generous philanthropist whose charitable activities span the globe. As a public servant, he was at the forefront of efforts to improve educational and healthcare opportunities for children. In 1998, he was the co-chairman of a successful California ballot initiative to raise the price of cigarettes by 50 cents a pack, providing hundreds of millions dollars of tax revenue to be used every year to improve healthcare for children under the age of six. Mr. Huffington was the Republican candidate for the United States Senate from California in 1994, losing by less than 1.6% of the vote to Diane Feinstein. He served as a member of the U. S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 1995. In 1993 and 1994, he donated his entire Congressional salary to programs that would help the children who lived in his Congressional district. And prior to that was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Negotiations Policy by President Reagan. He is the recipient of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service.

Mr. Huffington’s business experience includes serving as an executive-producer in the film industry, a business executive, and a merchant banker. From 1991 to 2000 he was the co-owner of Crest Films Limited, a full-service film production company known for its Emmy-Award winning commercials, documentaries, adventure films and work on behalf of non-profit organizations. Prior to that he was Vice Chairman of the Huffington Corporation, a family-owned international energy company, where he oversaw the computer, finance, real estate and tax departments. He was co-founder of the international merchant bank Simmons & Huffington, Inc., and is currently a limited partner of the Gerson International Law Group. He is an executive producer of For the Bible Tells Me So a documentary that was chosen to compete at the Sundance Film Festival in January, 2007.

Mr. Huffington’s philanthropic activities and commitments are varied and worldwide. A partial list of those organizations that he has supported financially, and on which he has served on the Board of Directors, include: the Aspen Institute in Aspen, Colorado, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, the Culver Educational Foundation in Culver, Indiana, Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. the Greek Orthodox Archdioceses of America in New York City, the Music Center of Los Angeles, the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York City, the Salzburg Seminar in Salzburg, Austria and the University of California at Santa Barbara.

He graduated from Harvard Business School in 1972 with an MBA in Finance, and he received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Engineering from Stanford University in 1970.