Former Speaker Newt Gingrich is the CEO of The Gingrich Group, an Atlanta-based communications and management-consulting firm. He also serves as a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. and a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

Gingrich served as a Member of Congress for 20 years and as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995-1999. He is widely recognized as the chief architect of the Republican Contract with America and the key strategist and leader behind the 1994 Republican victory, which created the first GOP majority in Congress in 40 years. Under his leadership, Congress passed welfare reform, the first balanced budget in a generation, and the first tax cuts in sixteen years.

As speaker, he disrupted the status quo by moving power out of Washington and returning it to the American people. He ushered in reforms which dramatically cut government waste, reined in IRS abuse of citizens, and ended Congress's ability to exempt itself from laws governing the rest of America. Through new technology and systems, he gave ordinary citizens direct access to Congress, re-establishing the House of Representatives as "The People's House."

Gingrich received a Bachelor's degree from Emory University and a Master's and Doctorate from Tulane University in Modern European History. Before his election to Congress, he taught History and Environmental Studies at West Georgia College for eight years. He is recognized worldwide as an expert on world history, military issues and international affairs and is a member of the Senior Advisory Board of the Secretary of Defense's National Security Study Group.

Gingrich is the author of five books including the best sellers, Contract With America and To Renew America. He lives in Marietta, Georgia and has two grown daughters.

NOTE: Bio is as it appeared in the Forum program from February 16, 2002.