Alan B. Smith, former executive director of the American Legislative Exchange Council, has joined The Heartland Institute as a senior fellow.
Smith was involved with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the nation’s largest individual membership association of state legislators, as an active representative of an ALEC member company for more than two decades and was a former member of ALEC’s Private Enterprise Board.
Smith will work closely with Eli Lehrer, another recent addition to Chicago-based Heartland, on finance, insurance, and real estate issues. Heartland recently acquired Lehrer’s Center on Risk, Regulation, and Markets from the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
Heartland President Joseph Bast said, “I’ve known Alan Smith for many years and have been a big fan of his work at ALEC. We’re looking forward to having him give our efforts on finance and insurance a major boost in 2010 and beyond.”
During his career in corporate public affairs, Smith served two terms on the Strategic Planning Committee of the Council of State Governments, and in 1990 he was an international representative for the National Conference of State Legislatures. He was also a president of the State Government Affairs Council, a Washington, DC-based national organization of public affairs professionals.
Smith, a former chief counsel to the minority in the Ohio House of Representatives, managed a public affairs staff at a national trade association of consumer products manufacturers and suppliers, in addition to his work at two insurance companies. Smith is a former head of the enforcement section of the Ohio Division of Securities, and he served as Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1969-1974.
