Michael Horowitz - Michael J. Horowitz is director of Hudson Institute's Project for Civil Justice Reform and Project for International Religious Liberty. He served as general counsel for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) from 1981 to 1985, and as an associate professor of law at the University of Mississippi from 1965 to 1967. Horowitz has maintained a private law practice since 1967.
Horowitz has been an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law School, special counsel for the Committee on the Judicial Branch of the Judicial Conference of the United States, and special counsel to the National Council of Young Israel. He served as chairman of President Reagan's Domestic Policy Council on Federalism and was co-chairman of the Cabinet Council's Working Group on Legal/Tort Policy.
In addition to his domestic credentials, Horowitz also served as an advisor to the Czech, Slovak, and Bulgarian Academies of Science; was vice president of the Bulgarian American Friendship Society; Counsel and Trustee of Save Cambodia, Inc.; and a National Advisory Board Member of the Institute for Democracy in Vietnam
Mark P. Lagon - Dr. Mark P. Lagon was nominated by President Bush in February 2007 and took the oath of office in May to serve as ambassador-at-large and director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP) and senior advisor to the Secretary of State.
The TIP Office coordinates U.S. government activities in the global fight against modern-day slavery, including forced labor and sexual exploitation. According to U.S. government-sponsored research completed in 2006, approximately 800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked across national borders, which does not include millions more trafficked within their own countries.
From 2004 to 2007, Dr. Lagon served as deputy assistant secretary of state for International Organization Affairs. In this capacity, he lead responsibility for UN-related human rights and humanitarian issues, UN administration and reform, and the IO Bureau's public diplomacy and outreach programs.
Dr. Lagon previously served as a member of the secretary of state's policy planning staff, where he focused on UN and international organizations, democracy and human rights, and public diplomacy (2002-2004).
From 1999 to 2002, he was a senior staff member of the Republican staff at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, with particular responsibility for the State Department authorization bill, international organizations, economic sanctions, human rights, and broadcasting and public diplomacy. Previous foreign affairs positions include: Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs fellow at the Project for the New American Century, specializing in China (1998-1999); deputy staff director of the House Republican Policy Committee (1997-1998) and senior analyst (1995-1998).
Before working on Capitol Hill, Dr. Lagon was the principal aide to the director of Foreign Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick. He has been an adjunct professor at the Institute of World Politics and Georgetown University. Dr. Lagon is the author of The Reagan Doctrine: Sources of American Conduct in the Cold War's Last Chapter (Praeger, 1994) and was associate editor of the journal Perspectives on Political Science.
Dr. Lagon has a PhD from Georgetown University and a BA magna cum laude from Harvard University.
