SPEAKER BIO: James L. Johnston

James L. Johnston is director and secretary of The Heartland Institute, an independent, nonprofit research center founded in 1984 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Johnston retired in January 1993 from his position as Senior Economist at Amoco Corporation, whose Economics Department he joined in 1975. His primary responsibilities while at Amoco included the economic analysis of public policy issues and the hedging of corporate risk. Prior to his employment at Amoco, Johnston served as an economist with the RAND Corporation, the Institute for Defense Analyses, and the Secretary's Office of the U.S. Treasury. He served on the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea. Johnston's current research has focused on electric utility deregulation in Illinois and other states; pollution trading under the climate change treaty, Clean Air Act, and the RECLAIM system for the South Coast Air District; and a general theory of regulation, which will be published soon in the Cato Institute's Cato Journal. Johnston serves on the Board of Directors of the Institute for Energy Research and the Acton Institute for Religion and Liberty. Johnston earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in economics from the University of Southern California and did graduate work toward a Ph.D. in economics at UCLA. He and his wife, Tina Johnston, reside in Wilmette.