Joseph L. Bast is President and CEO of The Heartland Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan center for public policy research located in Chicago, Illinois. He was the first employee of this organization when it started in 1984, and has overseen its growth from an annual budget in 1984 of $20,000 to spending and receipts of approximately $2 million in 2002.

Mr. Bast founded and was editor and publisher of Intellectual Ammunition, a bimonthly public policy magazine, as well as three monthly publications: School Reform News, Environment & Climate News, and Health Care News. All four publications are sent to all 8,000 state and national elected officials in the U.S., as well as to tens of thousands of grassroots activists nationwide.

Mr. Bast has cowritten or edited six books, including Eco-Sanity: A Common-Sense Guide to Environmentalism (1994, 1996), which won the Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award. His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, Crain=s Chicago Business, Investor=s Business Daily, and elsewhere.

A popular public speaker, Bast has addressed the National Conference of State Legislatures, Southern Legislative Conference, the Annual Clean Coal Technology Conference, National Order of Women Legislators Conference, Grocery Manufacturers Association/Food Marketing Institute Environmental Affairs Conference, Keep America Beautiful=s Annual Convention, the Rotary Club of Rockford, Illinois (the world=s largest Rotary Club) and Rotary One in Chicago (the world=s first Rotary Club).

Mr. Bast has been recognized frequently for his contributions to public policy research and debate, including being named one of "The 88 to Watch in 1988" by the Chicago Tribune; recipient of the 1994 Roe Award from the State Policy Network; commissioned a Kentucky Colonel by Gov. Paul E. Patton on June 19, 1996; recipient of the 1996 Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award for Eco-Sanity: A Common-Sense Guide to Environmentalism (with coauthors); and recipient of the 1998 Eagle Award from Eagle Forum.

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The Heartland Institute is an independent source of research and commentary founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1984. It is not affiliated with any political party, business, or foundation. Its activities are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Heartland's mission is to help build social movements in support of ideas that empower people. Such ideas include parental choice in education, choice and personal responsibility in health care, market-based approaches to environmental protection, privatization of public services, and deregulation in areas where property rights and markets do a better job than government bureaucracies.

Heartland has been endorsed by some of the country's leading scholars, public policy experts, and elected officials. Dr. Milton Friedman calls a "a highly effective libertarian institute." Cato Institute president Edward Crane says Heartland "has had a tremendous impact, first in the Midwest, and now nationally."

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