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William "Bill" Frenzel, Co-Founder

Bill Frenzel has been a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution since January 1991, when he retired from the U.S. House of Representatives after serving his Minnesota constituency for twenty years. 

Frenzel was the ranking minority member on the House Budget Committee and was the principal Republican economic spokesperson in the House.  He was a member of the House Ways and Means Committee and its Trade Subcommittee, and was a congressional representative to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in Geneva for fifteen years.  In 1993, he was special advisor to the president for NAFTA.  

In 2001, President Bush appointed him to the Social Security Commission, and in 2002, to the Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations (ACTPN), which he chairs.  In January, 2005, he was appointed to President Bush’s Tax Reform Commission. 

In 2000, he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, by the Emperor of Japan.   In 2002, he received an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from Hamline University. 
 
Frenzel received his B.A. and M.B.A. from Dartmouth College and served as a Naval Officer during the Korean War.  He was president of the Minneapolis Terminal Warehouse Co., and other corporations, a member of the Executive Board of the American Warehousemen's Association, and served eight years in the Minnesota Legislature. 

He is the vice chairman of the Eurasia Foundation, chairman of the US Steering Committee of the Transatlantic Policy Network, co-chairman of the Center for Strategic Tax Reform, co-chairman of the Bretton Woods Committee, co-chairman of the Committee For A Responsible Federal Budget, chairman of the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care, a member of the Executive Committee of the Committee on U.S.-China Relations, and chairman of the Executive Committee of the International Tax and Investment Center. 

He is a Board member of Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on Leadership and Management, Sit Mutual Funds, Northstar Education Finance, and other organizations. 

Frenzel and his wife, Ruthy, are the parents of three daughters and grandparents of two perfect grandchildren.