James Alfred (Jim) Guest2012 Bioscience symposium: Speaker Information: James Alfred (Jim) Guest
Amherst College (accessed January 9, 2016). (born December 25, 1940) is an American lawyer, consumer advocate, and politician. From 2001 to 2014, Guest was the president and chief executive officer of

Consumer Reports Consumer Reports (CR), formerly Consumers Union (CU), is an American nonprofit consumer organization dedicated to independent product testing, investigative journalism, consumer-oriented research, public education, and consumer advocacy. Founded ...

, a position he was appointed to after serving as Chairman of the Board of the Consumers Union from 1976 to 1994, with 21 of those 22 years as chair. Guest, a Democrat, unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate in 1982 and the U.S. House of Representatives in 1988.Secretary of State James A. Guest, 1977-1981
, Vermont State Archives.

Early life and education

James Alfred (Jim) Guest was born on December 25, 1940, in Montclair, New Jersey. He graduated from

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...

in 1962. He was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow in Economics at MIT and graduated from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

Career

Guest served as a legislative assistant to U.S. Senator

Edward M. Kennedy Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic ...

of Massachusetts. In the early 1970s, Guest moved to Vermont, where he served as state Commissioner of Banking and Insurance for three years before becoming Secretary of State of Vermont in January 1977, and later becoming state Secretary of Commerce. The guest was the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in 1982. He unsuccessfully sought election to the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1988 election for the Vermont seat. Guest was part of a four-way

primary Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Works * ...

race for the Democratic nomination, against

State Representative A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United Sta ...

Paul N. Poirier Paul N. Poirier (born September 30, 1948) is a Vermont politician who served several terms in the Vermont House of Representatives. Early life and start of career Poirier was born in Lewiston, Maine on September 30, 1948. He was educated at priv ...

of Barre, state Senate President Peter Welch of

Windsor County Windsor County is a county located in the U.S. state of Vermont. As of the 2020 census, the population was 57,753. The shire town (county seat) is the town of Woodstock. The county's largest municipality is the town of Hartford. History Wind ...

, and political newcomer Dolores Sandoval, a University of Vermont professor. Guest came in third place with 25% of the vote, behind winner Poirier and runner-up Welch. From 2001 to 2014, Guest was the president and chief executive officer of

, a position he was appointed to after serving as Chairman of the Board of the Consumers Union from 1976 to 1994, with 21 of those 22 years as chair. In 2009, as president and CEO of the Consumer Union, Guest appeared in the 72-year-old organization's first-ever television advertisement, urging Congress to pass the Affordable Care Act.Liz Halloran
'Consumer Reports' Chief Backs Health Overhaul
NPR (October 7, 2009). NPR described Guest as a "quietly influential figure" who was mostly unknown to Americans but exercised influence through the widely read ''Consumer Reports'' magazine and website. He ranked #11 of "the 100 most powerful people in health care" compiled by the trade publication '' Modern Healthcare''.Tara Parker-Pope
The 100 Most Powerful People in Health Care
''New York Times'' (August 27, 2009). Guest noted that the Consumers Union had favored

health care reform Health care reform is for the most part governmental policy that affects health care delivery in a given place. Health care reform typically attempts to: * Broaden the population that receives health care coverage through either public sector insur ...

since 1939, "taking the position that everybody in the country ought to have insurance coverage." Guest has led several advocacy and other groups, including Handgun Control Inc., the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, and

Planned Parenthood The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), or simply Planned Parenthood, is a nonprofit organization that provides reproductive health care in the United States and globally. It is a tax-exempt corporation under Internal Reve ...

of Maryland. He is also the founding executive director of the American Pain Foundation.

Personal life

Guest is married to Priscilla Frances Beach; they have two children.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guest, James Alfred 1940 births American publishing chief executives Amherst College alumni Consumer Reports Harvard Law School alumni Living people Secretaries of State of Vermont State cabinet secretaries of Vermont Vermont Democrats