John Blundell

John Blundell is the former Director General of the London-based Institute of Economic Affairs and Vice President of the Mont Pelerin Society.

He was educated at King's School, Macclesfield, and at the London School of Economics from 1971 to 1974.

His roles have included:
 * founder, Carl Menger Society for the stuody of Austrian and economic ideas (1975)
 * heading the Press, Research and Parliamentary Liaison Office at the Federation of Small Businesses from 1977 to 1982, and was a Lambeth Borough councillor from 1978 to 1982
 * From 1982 to 1993 he lived in the US where he was, inter alia, president of the Institute for Humane Studies (1988-91);
 * president of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation (1987-91);
 * president of the board of the Congressional Schools of Virginia (1988-92);
 * president of the Charles G. Koch and Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundations (1991-2)
 * He assumed his duties as general director of the Institute of Economic Affairs on 1 January 1993.
 * Co-founder and chairman, from 1993 to 1997, of the Institute for Children, Boston, MA;
 * founder director (1991-3), Institute for Justice, Washington DC;
 * international trustee (1988-93), the Fraser Institute, Vancouver, BC;
 * Founder trustee of Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions, Dayton, OH.

He is a Director of Fairbridge, the Atlas Economic Research Foundation (UK) and the International Policy Network. He is chairman of the executive committee of the board of Atlas Economic Research Foundation (USA).

He is also a board member of the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University, Fairfax, VA; of the Institute of Economic Studies (Europe) in Paris, France; and of the Mont Pelerin Society.

He is on the advisory council of the Tax Payers Alliance.

"Wonk Whores"
A scathing opinion column on corporate-funded think tanks work such as the International Policy Network and the Demos Institute cited Blundell dismissing them as "wonk whores". He says: "Global companies are buying up think-tanks left, right and centre. Large cheques come attached to particular policy recommendations and senior corporate types sit on committees ready to ‘candle-snuff’ dangerous ideas," Paul Staines reported in The Times. In a subsequent letter to the editor, Blundell, who is a trustee of IPN, stated that "the purchase by companies of 'particular policy recommendations' from groups pretending to be independent think-tanks is disgraceful. That is why International Policy Network, a UK charity of which I am a trustee, has a strict policy of not allowing its donors to influence the conclusions of its policy work, and a strict conflict of interest policy."