Background
James Alfred (Jim) Guest was born on December 25, 1940, in Montclair, New Jersey.
James Alfred (Jim) Guest was born on December 25, 1940, in Montclair, New Jersey.
He graduated from Amherst College in 1962. He was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow in Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and graduated from Harvard Law School.
From 2001 to 2014, Guest was the president and chief executive officer of Consumer Reports, 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 chairman Guest, a Democrat, unsuccessfully ran for the United States. Senate in 1982 and the United States. House of Representatives in 1988. Guest served as a legislative assistant to United States. Senator Edward M. Kennedy 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.
Guest was the Democratic nominee for United States. Senate in 1982. He unsuccessfully sought election to the United States. House of Representatives in the 1988 election for the Vermont seat.
Guest was part of a four-way primary race for the Democratic nomination, against State Representative Paul North. Poirier of Barre, state Senate President Peter Welch of Windsor County, and political newcomer Dolores Sandoval, a University of Vermont professor From 2001 to 2014, Guest was the president and chief executive officer of Consumer Reports, 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 chairman
In 2009, as president and Chief Executive Officer of the Consumer Union, Guest appeared in the 72-year-old organization"s first-ever television advertisement, urging Congress to pass the Affordable Care Acting.
National Public Radio 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. Guest noted that the Consumers Union had favored health care reform 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 Incorporated., the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, and Planned Parenthood of Maryland.
He is also the founding executive director of the American Pain Foundation.
