Jack Svahn served in the administrations of four Presidents. For over twenty years, he was closely identified with the fortieth President of the United States, Ronald Reagan. After helping Reagan reform California’s unwieldy and unfair welfare system, he moved to Washington DC to bring the same kind of reforms to the federal welfare system.

When Reagan was elected President in 1980, he appointed Svahn to be the Commissioner of Social Security. At the time, Social Security was running out of money, just as it is today, and a fierce public battle raged for two years to get the Congress to enact reforms to the programs to regain fiscal stability.

After a brief but hectic stint as Undersecretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, Svahn was appointed by Reagan to be his chief domestic and economic policy advisor. Jack served over three years in that capacity.

For the past twenty years he has been a public policy consultant. During that period he has served on a number of corporate and non-profit boards.

During his career, Jack has been a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Heritage Foundation; a member of the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine, Board of Health Care Services; a member of the Board of Visitors at the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law; a member of the Board of Governors of the National Aquarium in Baltimore; a member of the board of the Foundation for the Future of Aging; a member of the International Social Security Association and of the Inter-American Social Security Association; and Chairman of the Commission for the Study of Alternatives for the Panama Canal. He is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in American Politics, Who’s Who in Government, and Who’s Who in the West.

He and his wife Jill live in Reno, Nevada and Chester, Maryland.