Malone, president and CEO of the cable television giant Tele‐ Communications Inc. (TCI), has been called “the most influential man in television” by the New Yorker. One‐quarter of the American homes wired for cable television are TCI customers. Malone also holds an interest in a host of cable services, including CNN, TNT, QVC, Court TV, Black Entertainment Television, American Movie Classics, and the Discovery Channel.
Malone says, “In the telecommunications industry there is a growing consensus that government cannot regulate our marketplaces into competition. The Cato Institute has always supported the efficiencies and consumer benefits of a competitive marketplace and denied the general notion that government can devise an acceptable substitute. I am delighted to join Cato in its mission.”
Forstmann is a founding general partner of the New York investment firm Forstmann Little & Co., one of the nation’s leading acquirers of businesses. He is also founding chairman of Empower America. He commented, “Cato stands out among Washington’s think tanks for its unflinching fidelity to the libertarian ideal. Immune to political fashion, it refuses to compromise its intellectual integrity — providing a strong and steady voice for personal liberty, free‐market capitalism, and a civil society.”
Ackerman, formerly with Drexel Burnham, is now managing director of Rockport Financial Ltd. in London. On joining the Cato board, he commented, “As a resident of England since the fall of the Berlin Wall, I have watched European political discourse dominated by questioning the legitimacy of key multilateral institutions, including the EU, the IMF, and NATO. This debate will remain intense but unresolved until it is reformulated around the issue of the role of government in the lives of individual Europeans. Then Cato’s work will be recognized as vitally important. I am particularly pleased to serve on Cato’s board. During my tenure the themes Cato addresses, and the tone of its advocacy, will become more and more compelling to a worldwide audience.”
Cato president Ed Crane stated, “We are delighted to add three of America’s most successful entrepreneurs to our Board of Directors. Each one is not only a leader in his respective industry, but also a committed market‐liberal dedicated to expanding the sphere of civil society. They are welcome additions to a Board of Directors that always has been a substantial asset to the Institute.”