Michael Barnes - Board of Directors
Mr. Barnes was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1978 and represented Maryland's 8th District until 1987. He was a member of the House leadership, serving as Assistant Majority Whip, and served on the Foreign Affairs, Budget, Judiciary and District of Columbia Committees. He chaired the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs of the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Metropolitan Affairs Subcommittee of the DC Committee. He also chaired the Federal Government Service Task Force (creating the "Excalibur Award for Distinguished Public Service") and co-chaired the US-Brazil, US-Canada and US-Mexico Interparliamentary Working Groups, which hold annual meetings with members of the parliaments of those countries. He was also a member of the Subcommittees on Europe and the Middle East and Asia and Pacific Affairs of the Foreign Affairs Committee. President Reagan appointed him to serve on the Kissinger Commission on Central America and the President's Commission on Drunk Driving.
During his congressional service he was named "one of the two dozen most influential Members of the House" by the Almanac of American Politics and the "most powerful Member of Congress from Maryland or Virginia" by the Washington Post. In 1984 he received more votes than any other candidate for U.S. Congress in Maryland history. He was selected three times "Best Public Official" by the readers of Washingtonian Magazine. The New York Times called him "the leading Democratic Party voice on human rights and democracy in Latin America." A Baltimore Sun editorial labeled him a "pearl" among Maryland public officials.
Subsequent to his congressional service, Mr. Barnes has practiced law and served as President of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, Chair of the Center for National Policy, Chair of the U.S.-Panama Business Council, Co-chair of the U.S. Committee for the United Nations Development Program, Chair of the Governor's Commission on Growth in the Chesapeake Bay Region (the "2020 Commission"); and a member of the boards of directors of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, University of Maryland Foundation, Center for International Policy, Public Voice, Overseas Development Council, U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress, and U.S. Committee for UNICEF.
Mr. Barnes is Lead Director and Chair of the Governance Committee of WGL Holdings, Inc and its subsidiary, Washington Gas Light Company, which provides natural gas and electricity service to more than 1,000,000 customers in Maryland, Virginia and DC. He is on the National Advisory Boards of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and the United Nations Association. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs, Pacific Council on International Policy, and Inter-American Dialogue (a group of leaders from the US, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean who meet regularly to address hemispheric issues).
In the political arena Mr. Barnes has been Chair of the Maryland Democratic Party, a member of the Democratic National Committee, Staff Director of the National Democratic Platform Committee, Chief Spokesman on Platform Issues for two Democratic Presidential Nominees, Chair of the successful 1992 Maryland campaign for President of then Governor Bill Clinton; four times a Delegate to National Democratic Conventions and three times a member of the National Democratic Platform Committee. He was selected to serve as one of Maryland's 10 Electors in the 2008 Presidential Electoral College.
He is the author of books on foreign policy and politics and has been published in dozens of newspapers and journals and interviewed on television hundreds of times in the United States and around the world, including 4 appearances on "Meet the Press" and more than 30 on PBS's "News Hour." He has been a paid commentator for NBC News on international and domestic issues. He has been honored by the nations of Brazil, Chile, Haiti, Israel, Panama and South Korea. (Israel designated a 13-story dormitory for Jewish refugees from Ethiopia "Beit Barnes" ("Barnes House") in recognition of his role in "Project Moses" which rescued thousands).
Mr. Barnes is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, studied international relations and economics at the Institut Universitaire des Hautes Etudes Internationales in Geneva, Switzerland, and received his Juris Doctor Degree with Honors from the George Washington University Law School where he was an Editor of the Law Review. He served six years in the United States Marine Corps and Marine Corps Reserve, receiving the Vietnam Service Medal and the Good Conduct Medal. He speaks French. He has been a Adjunct Professor of Law at American University and has lectured at colleges and universities in the United States, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.
Mr. Barnes and his wife, Joan Pollitt, reside in Chevy Chase, Maryland and Naples, Florida. They have two sons, Stuart and Daniel Pollitt, and two daughters, Dillon Barnes Cox and Garrett Barnes.
