Former Speaker

U.S. House of Representatives

 

Newt Gingrich served the Sixth District of Georgia in Congress for 20 years, beginning in 1978.  In 1995, Gingrich was elected speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served until 1999. Gingrich is considered to be the architect of the “Contract with America” that led the Republican Party to victory in 1994, capturing the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years. Under his leadership, Congress reformed the welfare system, passed the first balanced budget in a generation, and cut taxes for the first time in 16 years. In addition, Congress restored funding to strengthen U.S. defense and intelligence capabilities, an action later lauded by the bipartisan 9/11 Commission.

 

In 1999, Gingrich was appointed to the United States Commission on National Security/21st Century, also known as the Hart-Rudman Commission, to examine U.S. national security challenges as far out as 2025. Recently, he was named co-chair of the United Nations Task Force, a bipartisan congressional effort to reform the United Nations.

 

Recognized internationally as an expert on world history, military issues, and international affairs, Gingrich serves as a Member of the Defense Policy Board.  He is the longest serving teacher of the joint war fighting course for Major Generals. He also teaches officers from all five services as a distinguished visiting scholar and professor at the National Defense University.

 

Gingrich serves on the Terrorism Task Force for the Council on Foreign Relations. He is an editorial board member of the Johns Hopkins University Journal, Biosecurity and Bioterrorism, and is an advisory board member of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Gingrich is also chairman of the Gingrich Group, a communications and consulting firm that specializes in transformational change, with offices in Atlanta and Washington.  He serves as general chairman of American Solutions for Winning the Future, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and an honorary chairman of the NanoBusiness Alliance.