MPI's Board of Directors
David Thayer, chairman of MPI's board, is a founding partner at the Harvest Funds, an investment partnership based in Wayne, PA that invests in tax-advantaged energy infrastructure. For twenty years, he served in the U.S. Army Reserve. Deployed as an armored cavalry platoon leader following the events of September 11th, he later held senior positions in the Army Officer Candidate School before ending his career as commanding officer of the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry. Thayer also serves on the boards of the Philadelphia Charity Ball and John Boyer Memorial Scholarship Trust. He received a BS from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, an MA from the London School of Economics, and an MBA with Honors from the University of Chicago.
Michael J. Friedman is a partner at Winston & Strawn LLP, an international law firm with 15 offices worldwide. His practice focuses on issues of corporate governance and director and officer liability. He received an AB in history, cum laude, from Princeton University and a JD from Northwestern University School of Law. At Northwestern, he was note and comment editor of the Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology and was awarded the Lowden-Wigmore Prize for best student-written journal article. In 2009, he received the Burton Award for his achievement in legal writing. He also serves on the board of the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.
Kevin Harper is the founder and chief investment officer of Junto Financial. Prior to that, he was a managing director of investment research at Endowment Capital Group LLC, where he was instrumental in launching the fund and raising approximately $500M from endowment and foundation clients. A Pennsylvania Army National Guard veteran, Harper served with the 28th Division in Operation Joint Forge in Bosnia and was awarded the 104th Squadron’s “Enlisted Soldier of the Deployment." He is also founder and chairman of the ValorTrust Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to helping disabled veterans. Harper holds a BS from the Wharton School, a BA in chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from the Wharton School.
Marc Leader is a financial executive at SunGard Availability Services, which provides IT operations support for disaster recovery, managed services, IT consulting, and business continuity management. He is responsible for the company's annual and long-range financial plans, as well as the evaluation of strategic initiatives. He has served on the boards of several non-profit organizations, including the University of Pennsylvania Alumni Association and PSI Upsilon of Philadelphia. He holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from New York University's Leonard Stern School of Business.
Rob Pfaltzgraff, MPI’s executive director, graduated from Tufts University with a degree in American Studies. He worked for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) from its founding in 1999, designing and creating FIRE’s first website and eventually rising to the position of vice president of development, management, and marketing. He left FIRE in March 2006 to become executive director of MPI, where he is responsible for day-to-day operations, including development, marketing, public relations, and assisting with the production of MPI’s projects. He has executive produced Do As I Say (based on Peter Schweizer’s New York Times bestseller), The Libel Tourist, and The Cartel.