Chester E. Finn, Jr. is president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and a leading policy expert, educator, and public servant who has devoted his career to improving education in the United States. He is also a Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution where he chairs the Koret Task Force on K-12 Education.

For 40 years, Chester has been in the forefront of the national debate about school reform.

He has served as Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Education (1985-88) and earlier as Staff Assistant to the President of the United States.

Chester is the author of 20 books. His latest is titled Exam Schools: Inside America’s Most Selective Public High Schools, co-authored with Jessica A. Hockett. 

Chester holds three degrees from Harvard University.

He and his wife have two grown children and three granddaughters.