About our Board

Andrew J. Cowin
Andrew J. Cowin has been a private investor since 1998, and chairman of the Yankee Institute since 2003. Prior to that, he was executive director of the Manhattan Institute's Center for Civic Innovation. In that position, Andrew worked with mayors from around the country to find new ways of addressing urban problems. He served from 1994 to 1995 as minority counsel to the Subcommittee on Crime and Criminal Justice in the U.S. House of Representatives. From 1989 to 1993, Andrew was the United Nations analyst and Jay Kingham Fellow for International Trade at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. He also wrote numerous papers, articles and op/eds on subjects outside the field of international affairs, including crime, drugs, federalism, and campaign-finance reform. Andrew lives in Connecticut, is married to Allyson Tucker Cowin, and has three daughters. He has a B.A. from Tufts University and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.
Professor Gerald Gunderson
Gerald Gunderson is the Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of American Business and Economic Enterprise, and Director of the Shelby Cullom Davis Endowment, at Trinity College in Hartford. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Washington, with a thesis in economic history supervised by Douglass North, a Nobel Laureate. He has held faculty appointments at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Mount Holyoke College, and North Carolina State University. Professor Gunderson has published numerous academic papers, including studies of the cause of the American Civil War, the demise of the Roman Empire, and models of entrepreneurship. He also has authored columns in more than 20 newspapers throughout the nation, including the Wall Street Journal. He has worked with national professional associations concerning entrepreneurship, economic and business history, private enterprise systems, economic education, and public policies. He served as president of the Association of Private Enterprise Education and is now editor of The Journal of Private Enterprise. He was a founding member, serves as a member of the executive board as treasurer, and directs the Academic Advisory Board for the Yankee Institute for Public Policy, Inc. He received the Freedom Foundation’s award for Excellence in Private Enterprise Education in 1980. In 1996, he was appointed by the governor to the Educational Improvement Panel to develop solutions to poor public schooling in Connecticut. Dr. Gunderson is the author of A New Economic History of America (McGraw-Hill, 1974) and The Wealth Creators: An Entrepreneurial History of the United States (E.P. Dutton, 1989) which Peter Drucker, the mentor of modern management, described as "brilliant." He continues working on the topics of global entrepreneurship as well as the growth of anti-slavery sentiment in the U.S.
Ken Boudreau
Ken Boudreau joined the Yankee Institute in February of 2007 as a director. He has been working as a private investor since 1997 after selling his staffing business CGS Staffing Services. Currently, he serves as a trustee for the Hillstead Museum in Farmington and on the Council of Advisors for the New Britain Museum of American Art. Ken has also chaired or served on the board of many organizations including the Wheeler Clinic, the Mark Twain House and Museum and the Connecticut Business and Industry Association. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the University of Hartford and Ken also served in the United States Marine Corps as a commissioned officer, serving in Vietnam where he rose to the rank of captain. Ken resides with his wife Judy in Farmington. They have a daughter and son-in-law and one granddaughter.
William H. Campbell
Bill Campbell, CPA/PFS, MST, joined the Yankee Institute in May 1993 as a director and has served as treasurer in the past. Bill is longtime resident of Connecticut. He is the president and founder of William H. Campbell, P.C., a certified public accounting firm located in Glastonbury. He received his undergraduate degree in business administration from Bryant University and his Master of Science in taxation from the University of Hartford. Bill is recognized by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants as a Personal Financial Specialist.
Daniel Gressel
Daniel Gressel is the president and founder of Teleos, a global macro hedge fund based in Stamford. He has served as a board member of the Yankee Institute since 2004. From 1988 until forming Teleos in February 1991, Daniel was a portfolio manager at G.T. Capital Management. From 1986 to 1988, Daniel worked as an economist for G.T. Management (Asia) in Hong Kong. From 1984 to 1986, he traded futures and options for his own account on the Comex and New York Futures Exchange. Daniel taught economics and consulted from 1978 to 1993, teaching at Baruch College in New York and Catholic University in Santiago, Chile. Dan received a B.S. in Business Administration from Ohio State University in 1976, and an M.A. in 1978 and Ph.D. in 1984 in economics from the University of Chicago.
George W. Schiele
George W. Schiele is president of George Warren Schiele, Inc., president and CEO of 4003 Corporation, and a director of Connecticut Innovations, Inc., where he serves as chairman of the Investment Advisory Committee. George has been a Yankee Institute board member since 2001, and was appointed to the executive board in 2005. He is also a member of the Cato Institute, and Rainier and Penn Clubs. An accomplished author, with bylines in over 30 newspapers and trade publications, including the New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Naval Institute Proceedings, Los Angeles Times, and Forum, in 2003 George had an article published in Investor's Business Daily that analyzed the growth of public employment in Connecticut and the state's growing debt. George resides in Greenwich with his wife Joan. They have three children and three grandchildren. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, College of Liberal Arts and Wharton School, Bachelor of Science in Economics (Finance).
William K. Tell, Jr.
William K. Tell, Jr. graduated from Dartmouth College in 1956 with a Bachelor of Arts degree and a major in government. Following graduation he earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 1959, and joined the legal department of Texaco Inc. in 1963. Mr. Tell was appointed associate general counsel of Texaco in 1970 and elected a corporate vice president in 1973, in charge of the company’s relations with the U.S. federal government. From 1989 to 1997 Mr. Tell served as a senior vice president at the company's corporate headquarters with responsibility for the company’s worldwide government affairs, public relations, advertising, and sales promotion. Since his retirement from Texaco in 1998, Mr. Tell has focused his attention on public policy issues, primarily concerning civic education. In 2006 he published his first book, Bridges Burning, which describes the challenges confronting the U.S. and its citizens in the rapidly changing and dangerous world of the 21st century. Bridges Burning argues that U.S. citizens lack the needed information and education to tackle the complex challenges which lie ahead for the United States. Mr. Tell is a member of the board of directors of Yankee Institute and serves on the executive committee and board of governors of the Foreign Policy Association, is a trustee of both the Manhattan Institute and the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, and serves on the board of directors of the Institute for American Values.
Kenneth Von Kohorn
Kenneth Von Kohorn is the founder and president of Von Kohorn Research and Advisory, an investment advisory firm located in Westport. He is a graduate of Yale University and Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. In addition to serving on the Yankee board, Kenneth also serves as chairman of the board of the Family Institute of Connecticut and as a board member of the Institute for American Values and of Toward Tradition.
William L. Hanley, Jr.,Chairman Emeritus
William (Lee) Hanley is the Yankee Institute’s chairman emeritus. He joined the Institute in 1991, and served as chairman through 2001. He is the president of Lexington Management Group, Inc. and serves as treasurer of the JM Foundation. Earning a degree in economics from Yale University, Lee's background includes entrepreneurship in oil and gas exploration, automobiles, and bricks. Lee has served as chairman of the board for groups such as Greenwich Hospital and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in Washington, D.C. His business directorships include the Metro New York Chapter of the Young Presidents' Organization and the Brick Institute of America. Among Lee's political affiliations are the Greenwich Republican Town and Connecticut Reagan-Bush Committees. He is also a member of the Round Hill, Hay Harbor, and Fishers Island Clubs. Lee resides in Florida with wife Alice (Allie) they have five daughters and nine grandchildren.
John M. Horak, Legal Counsel
John (Jack) Horak is a principal in the Hartford firm Reid and Riege, P.C., where he has worked since 1980. He is chairman of the firm’s corporate department and the founder of the firm’s nonprofit organization practice group. Jack is a regular contributor to, and editor of, Reid and Riege’s Nonprofit Organization Report, a quarterly publication distributed throughout New England. Jack has published several articles and editorials on various legal and policy issues in Philanthropy, The Hartford Courant, and the Connecticut Law Tribune. Jack regularly teaches professional education courses at venues throughout Connecticut, and in 2005 became an adjunct instructor at the New York University School of Continuing Professional Education, George H. Heyman, Jr. Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising. For nearly 20 years, Jack has served the Yankee Institute as a board member and in other capacities. He was recently appointed as the Institute's legal counsel. He has served on several other boards of different nonprofit organizations throughout Connecticut, and is a former member of the West Hartford Ethics Commission. He received his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College (1976), and his law degree from the University of Notre Dame Law School (1980). He has attained an “AV” Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Rating. Jack resides in Hartford, and he is active with his four boys in youth ice hockey.