Al From

Al From is one of America’s premier political strategists and policy entrepreneurs. He has a track record of injecting innovative ideas into the national debate, turning major national institutions around, and changing the course of American life. The founder and former CEO of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), his ideas and political strategies during the past 25 years played a central role in the resurgence of the Party. Founded after a series of crushing defeats when some thought the Democratic Party was destined for extinction, From turned organization into the Party’s leading source of policy innovation. In 2000, President Bill Clinton said, “It would be hard to think of a single American citizen who, as a private citizen, has had a more positive impact on the progress of American life in the last 25 years than Al From.” Exclusively represented by Leading Authorities speakers bureau, From discusses political strategy and what is next for the Democratic Party.

The DLC. The Democratic Leadership Council is the birthplace of the New Democrat movement and the Third Way in America – and its companion think tank, the Progressive Policy Institute. The “Third Way” is a governing philosophy that has reshaped progressive politics. In 1998, President Bill Clinton said, “The ideas pushed by the DLC are literally sweeping the world.” The DLC has brought together some of the most prominent global political leaders, and, in 2010, The New York Times Magazine called the DLC one of the two “most influential think tanks in history, the primary shapers of political thought at the end of the broadcast age.”

From led the DLC from its inception in 1985 until he stepped down as CEO in 2009. Many of the ideas that comprise the core of the Democratic Party’s agenda come from work done under his leadership. National service, an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit, welfare reform, charter schools, community policing, expanded trade, and re-inventing government were all championed by scholars and analysts at the DLC before becoming public policy.