Mark Penn and Jan van Lohuizen - Presidential Pollster Panel

Dr. Jan van Lohuizen

Pollster for President George W. Bush

Chairman, Voter Consumer Research, Inc.

Dr. Jan van Lohuizen, Chairman and one of the founding members of Voter Consumer Research, has directed public opinion research projects since 1977. His area of expertise is in public policy and elections research. He has conducted opinion research for hundreds of political campaigns. His principal emphasis today is on surveys for initiative and referendum campaigns and opinion research on public policy issues. Clients include prominent elected officials, major U.S. corporations, industry associations, and think tanks.

Mark Penn

Pollster for President Bill Clinton

Executive Vice President & Chief Strategy Officer, Microsoft Corporation

Mark Penn is Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at Microsoft Corporation, responsible for working on core strategic issues across Microsoft’s products, value propositions, and investments and leading the company’s competitive research and analysis. Penn reports to CEO Satya Nadella and serves on Microsoft’s Senior Leadership Team. He oversees an interdisciplinary strategy team and works with product and other teams across the company.

Previously, Penn was worldwide CEO of Burson-Marsteller and CEO of Penn Schoen Berland, serving as senior adviser to global corporate and political leaders including Bill Gates, Bill Ford, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and President Bill Clinton.

For six years, Penn served as White House Pollster to President Clinton and was a key strategy adviser in his 1996 re-election, identifying "soccer moms" as the key swing vote needed for victory. Penn also served as chief strategist to Hillary Clinton in her Senate campaigns and 2008 Presidential campaign, devising her "upstate strategy" in New York and creating the "3 AM" ad in the 2008 primaries. Throughout his career, Penn has helped elect more than 25 leaders in the United States, Asia, Latin America and Europe.

Penn is the author of the 2007 bestselling book “Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes,” and of the recurring Wall Street Journal “Microtrends” column. In a cover story, Time Magazine called him “Master of the Message.”

Penn earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and attended Columbia Law School. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the National Holocaust Museum’s Committee on Conscience, and he serves on the board of Meridian International Center. Penn is also a visiting lecturer at Harvard College.

The Economic Club is pleased to host a panel discussion of "Public Opinion & White House Decision-Making" featuring two veteran Presidential pollsters representing two sides of American politics. This informative event will examine the 2014 election results and provide useful analysis of what the public wants to see the new Congress and President Obama accomplish in the last two years of his Administration.”

Mark Penn, current Corporate Vice President, Strategic and Special Projects at Microsoft, served as chief adviser to President Bill Clinton in the 1996 White House campaign. He's credited with inventing the overnight poll, among other industry standards. Dr. Jan van Lohuizen, president of Voter Consumer Research, is an expert in public policy and elections research. He was the polling executive for both of President George W. Bush's presidential campaigns.”