Duane Parde

Duane Parde is President and Chief Operating Officer of the National Taxpayers Union (NTU) and National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF). Before joining NTU and NTUF, Parde was a principal at Phoenix Strategies, LLC. The firm provides consulting, governmental affairs, and corporate relations services at the federal, state, and local levels.

Prior to founding Phoenix Strategies, Duane served as the Executive Director of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) from December 1996 to January 2006. At ALEC, Duane was responsible for setting the strategic vision and managing the operations for the nation's largest nonpartisan, individual membership association of state legislators. Founded in Chicago in 1973 by a small group of Democratic and Republican state legislators, ALEC is dedicated to developing and advancing policies based on the Jeffersonian principles of free markets, limited government and individual liberty. Prior to serving as Executive Director, Duane was ALEC's Chief of Staff, responsible for the management of internal operations, including the development, implementation and enforcement of financial, administrative and personnel policies and procedures. He also served as liaison to the Board of Directors.

From 1992 to 1995, Duane was the Director of State Affairs for the Council for Affordable Health Insurance (CAHI), a national trade association representing the interests of small and medium-sized health insurance companies. Before that, he was ALEC's Director of State Legislation and Research, responsible for directing ALEC's policy operations. His specialty was tax and fiscal policy issues, and he was instrumental in ALEC's successful efforts to ratify what was then called the "Madison Pay-Delay Amendment," which required that Members of Congress sit for an election before they could receive a pay raise. This provision was ratified in 1992, becoming the 27th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and the first new amendment since 1973.

After receiving his bachelor's degree in Political Science from the University of Kansas, Duane accepted a position as Legislative Research Assistant in the Kansas Attorney General's Office. He is a member of the American Society of Association Executives, The Federalist Society, and The University Club of Washington, D.C. He is the author of numerous papers and articles on state policy, and has testified many times before state legislative committees on a wide range of issues.

A higher resolution photo of Mr. Parde is available here.

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