Biography

Christopher DeMuth has worked at three national think tanks in recent decades and earlier served in the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon. He has also been a teacher, businessman, practicing lawyer, and consulting economist. He is a recipient of a 2017 Bradley Prize and the 2025 Beaconsfield Prize.

Mr. DeMuth was President of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research from 1986–2008; D.C. Searle Senior Fellow at AEI from 2008–2011; Distinguished Fellow at Hudson Institute from 2012–2023; and Distinguished Fellow in American Thought at The Heritage Foundation from 2023–2025.

He was Staff Assistant to President Nixon in 1969–1970, working first on urban and welfare policy under Daniel P. Moynihan and then as Chairman of the White House Task Force on Environmental Policy. A decade later, in President Reagan’s first term (1981–1984), he was Administrator for Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget and Executive Director of the Presidential Task Force on Regulatory Relief.

From 1977–1981, Mr. DeMuth taught at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and directed the Harvard Faculty Project on Regulation. He practiced law with Sidley & Austin in Chicago in 1973–1976 and the Consolidated Rail Corporation in Philadelphia in 1973–1977, and was an economic consultant with Lexecon, Inc. in 1977–1981 and 1984–1986. He was publisher and editor-in-chief of Regulation magazine (now published by the Cato Institute) in 1986–1987, and chaired his family’s small manufacturing businesses during 1990–2013.

Mr. DeMuth was raised in Kenilworth, Illinois, and is a graduate of The Lawrenceville School (1964), Harvard College (1968), and the University of Chicago Law School (1973). He is Cochairman of the Board of Visitors of the Federalist Society and a Trustee of the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Fund. He chaired the National Conservatism Conference in 2019–2025 and the AHA Foundation Board of Directors in 2012–2022. His writings, curriculum vitae, and miscellaneous videos and podcasts are posted at www.ccdemuth.com.

Chris and his wife, Susan DeMuth, MD, reside in McLean, Virginia, and Rangeley, Maine, and have three children and twelve grandchildren.

Short

Christopher DeMuth is a former President of the American Enterprise Institute and Fellow of Hudson Institute and The Heritage Foundation. He served at the White House in the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon. A graduate of Harvard College and the University of Chicago Law School, he has been a teacher, businessman, practicing lawyer, and consulting economist. His writings are posted at www.ccdemuth.com.