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Douglas Lowenstein, President
Doug Lowenstein is the founding president of the Private Equity Council.
Before joining the organization in February 2007, Lowenstein founded and served as president of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). In his 13 years at the organization, Lowenstein built the ESA into the most influential and important worldwide trade body representing the $30 billion computer and video game software industry.
Earlier, Lowenstein was an executive vice president in the Washington and New York strategic communications firm Robinson Lake Sawyer Miller, Inc. From 1986-1991, Lowenstein was a Principal in National Strategies, Inc., a Washington public policy consulting firm.
From 1982 through 1986, Lowenstein worked for U.S. Senator Howard Metzenbaum (D-OH), spending the last two years as legislative director.
Lowenstein spent the first eight years of his career as a newspaper reporter, starting with the Buffalo Courier Express, followed by two years at the Capitol Hill News Service. From 1976-82, he was a correspondent in the Cox Newspapers Washington Bureau.
In 1982, he authored a biography of his late uncle, Allard K. Lowenstein, a member of Congress and anti-war, civil rights and human rights activist, who was killed in 1980. Entitled, “Lowenstein: Acts of Courage and Belief,” the book was published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Douglas Lowenstein received a bachelor of arts degree in Political Science in 1973 from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
Steve Judge, Vice President Government Relations
Steve Judge serves as vice president of government relations for the Private Equity Council. Before joining the PEC in March 2007, Judge was Senior Vice President, Government Affairs and Head of the Washington Office for the Securities Industry Association (SIA), now the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA).
Judge directed SIA’s advocacy efforts for the investment banking and brokerage industry in federal, state and international government affairs. He spent 14 years as head of the Washington office. He joined SIA in 1991 as vice president and lobbyist.
Judge also served as a member of several Congressional committee staffs. From 1987 to 1991 he was Deputy Staff Director of the Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Judge came to Washington D.C. in 1978 with Congressman Bruce Vento (DFL-MN), eventually becoming the Congressman’s Legislative Director. He began his legislative career in the Minnesota State Legislature as Staff Assistant with the Senate Committee on Education. Judge holds a bachelor of science degree in government from St. John’s University in Minnesota.
Robert Stewart, Vice President Public Affairs
Robert Stewart joined the Private Equity Council in May 2007 after a long career as a communications professional specializing in public affairs and public policy issues. Between 2005 and 2007, Stewart owned and managed Crossfire Communications, LLC, a public affairs consulting firm with offices in Nevada and Rhode Island. During that time, he also was senior vice president of The Wade Group, a communications consulting agency based in Washington DC.
From 2001 until 2005, Stewart served as senior vice president of corporate communications for Caesars Entertainment, Inc., then the world’s largest casino resort company. Based in Las Vegas, Stewart was responsible for public affairs and media relations at the corporate level and for the company’s 28 casino properties, located in five countries on four continents.
Before moving to Las Vegas, Stewart worked for 12 years in Washington, where he held a series of top communications positions at telecommunications and technology companies. From 1997 through 2000, Stewart was senior vice president of corporate communications at Teligent, a telecommunications start-up company based in Vienna, Virginia. Earlier, he served as director of public policy communications for MCI, and director of communications for the Washington office of Pacific Telesis, then one of the seven Baby Bells.
Previously, Stewart spent 18 years as a journalist. From 1982 until 1993 he worked as a reporter and later Washington correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. Previously, he was a reporter for The Providence Journal in Providence, Rhode Island. He earned a bachelor of arts degree in English from Brown University and a master of arts degree in communications from Syracuse University.
Jason Thomas, Vice President Research
Before joining the Private Equity Council in August 2008, Jason Thomas served on the White House staff as Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director for Policy Development at the National Economic Council. In those capacities, Thomas acted as the NEC’s chief economic analyst and the primary adviser to the President for public finance.
He chaired the Administration’s policy coordination committee for public finance and served as the White House liaison to the Administration’s economic and revenue forecasting group and the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets.
Prior to working at the White House, Thomas spent nearly four years on the staff of Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, where he was the economic policy analyst for the Senate Republican Policy Committee. Previously, Thomas worked as an analyst at an IBP, Inc. processing plant in Buffalo, New York and worked as a staff economist at Citizens for a Sound Economy in Washington, DC.
Thomas earned his bachelor’s degree in economics and government from Claremont McKenna College, his Master of Science degree from George Washington University, and is a currently a doctoral fellow at George Washington’s finance department. Thomas is a CFA charterholder.