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Former
Missouri Congressman Jack W. Buechner is the
current president of the US Association of Former Members of Congress. He retired in 2005 as President and Chief
Executive Officer of Presidential Classroom - a non-profit civic education
program for the best and the brightest high school students. Mr. Buechner, elected to the U.S. Congress in 1987 and 1989
from Missouri's
2nd District, has been on the Presidential Classroom Board of Directors since
1999. He was a partner with the law firm Manatt,
Phelps & Phillips in Washington,
D.C.
After leaving Congress, he served as President of the International
Republican Institute (IRI). IRI is a not-for-profit, non-governmental
organization that provides training in civic education, political party
building, communications, strategy and electoral processes in emerging
democracies, working primarily with Agency for International Development and
private grants. During Mr. Buechner's term at IRI,
the organization opened offices in six countries and developed programs on
democracy and free market economies in 28 countries.
Mr. Buechner has other international education
experience, too. In 1992, he was Visiting Professor of Political Thought at Webster University
in Vienna, Austria. He lectured overseas on
democracy and free market economies, and has also represented the United States
throughout the world at conferences on post-cold war developments.
For seven years, Mr. Buechner has been a partner
with the law firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips,
representing domestic and international clients before the Congress,
Executive Branch departments, independent agencies and quasi-governmental
entities. Much of his international work has involved
analysis of the political, governmental and economic climates in emerging
democracies. Mr. Buechner has also served as an
advisor to several Ambassadors and corporate executives. Mr. Buechner founded his own law firm in St. Louis, Missouri,
and practiced law for 18 years before being elected to Congress.
While in Congress, Mr. Buechner served in the
Republican leadership as Vice-Chairman of the Republican Study Committee and
as Deputy Whip to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. In the Missouri State
House of Representatives, his tenure included two terms in the leadership. He
also served as a Missouri Tourism
Commissioner and member of the Advisory Board of the U.S.
Commission on Civil Rights.
Mr. Buechner has also been a principal in the Virginia public
affairs firm, The Hawthorn Group. He serves on the Boards of the Center for
National Policy, the Council for a Community of Democracies, and Presidential
Classroom. He is past president of The Missouri Society of Washington, D.C.,
and past vice president of the National Association of State Societies. Born
in St. Louis, Mr. Buechner
received an A.B. from St. Benedict's College in Atchison,
Kansas, and a J.D. from St. Louis University.
He currently resides in McLean,
Virginia, with his wife, Nancy Chanitz, and their son, Charlie.
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