Jim Guest is president and CEO of Consumers Union (CU), publisher of Consumer Reports. He joined Consumers Union in February 2001 after a long career in public service and the consumer interest, including 21 years as chair of CU's Board of Directors. Consumers Union is an expert, independent, nonprofit organization whose mission is to work for a fair, just, and safe marketplace for all consumers.

Under Mr. Guest's leadership, CU launched a campaign to improve the safety, quality, accessibility, and value of the healthcare marketplace, including ConsumerReportsHealth.org and the Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center.

In 2009, Mr. Guest was named to the annual "100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare" by Modern HealthCare magazine. Mr. Guest serves on several committees, including as a member of the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) Roundtable on Evidence-Based Medicine and the chair of the Roundtable's Communication Innovation Collaborative. The IOM provides independent, objective, evidence-based health advice to policymakers, health professionals, the private sector, and the public. Mr. Guest was also appointed to an IOM panel that was formed as a result of Congress' authorization of $1.1 billion for "comparative effectiveness research" in the economic stimulus legislation passed in 2009. The panel provided a list of 100 research priorities and recommendations to Congress and the Administration that will serve as a guidepost for spending the $1.1 billion.

As the CEO of the Consumers Union, he oversees revenues of approximately $250 million and a staff of more than 600, who work primarily at CU's headquarters in Yonkers, New York, which houses the organization's 50-state-of-the-art labs, publishing, research, and advocacy operations. Mr. Guest also serves as the vice-president of Consumers International, a global federation of 220 consumer organizations from 115 countries.

Mr. Guest's public service career has spanned more than three decades. After graduating from Harvard Law School and completing a Woodrow Wilson fellowship in economics at MIT, he worked as legislative assistant to Senator Ted Kennedy. In the early 1970s, Mr. Guest moved to Vermont, where he served as Banking and Insurance Commissioner, Secretary of State, and Secretary of Development and Community Affairs.  

Prior to becoming president of Consumers Union, he headed several public policy and advocacy groups, including Handgun Control Inc. and the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, as well as Planned Parenthood of Maryland. He was also the founding executive director of the American Pain Foundation, a national consumer information, education, and advocacy organization for pain prevention and management.

Mr. Guest's very first job was paperboy for Dr. Colston Warne, the first chair of the CU board of directors and a leader in the consumer movement.