Catherine Windels

Catherine Barr Windels is a former Reagan admistration official, lobbyist and think tank networker. Windels 'served as Senior Director for Policy Stakeholder Relations for Pfizer Inc., for whom she acted as a liaison with policy think tanks around the world. During a 22 year career at Pfizer, she helped create new think tanks and networks of think tanks in Europe, Canada, Africa and Asia, as well as working closely with many leading institutes in the US.'Galen Institute Officers and Trustees, accessed 12 May 2010 Paul Belien of the conservative Brussels Journal describes Windels as the 'godmother of think tanks', he describes how, in her role at Pfizer she was instrumental in setting up several think tank networks:
:American pharmaceutical company Pfizer, which has a philosophy of supporting young people with new initiatives through the good care of Catherine Windels.Paul Belein, The Brussels Capitalist Ball 2006, The Brussels Journal, 26-February-2006, Accessed 27-May-2010
==Reagan too conservative?==
Windels claims that she intially thought Ronald Reagan was too Conservative to be elected:
:"I'm a bit embarrassed to say that I was not a Reagan supporter in 1976 or in the primaries in 1980," confesses Cathy Windels, a New York pharmaceutical executive who works with think tanks that promote market-based healthcare reform.
:"My Dad told me for years that Reagan was going to be president, and a great one. I thought he was too conservative to win," Windels adds. After a stint at the Heritage Foundation, she joined the Reagan administration in 1982.
:"By being inside and seeing that President Reagan was such a great leader, I realized my Dad had been right, and I had been wrong. This guy was a once-in-a-lifetime president," Windels says. "What was impressive was that, even at a relatively low level, all we political appointees knew exactly what we were supposed to be doing, and that the mission came from what one colleague called (affectionately) 'The stubborn old man in the White House.'"Deroy Murdock Generation Reagan: He inspired many of us. National Review Online, June 14, 2004, 8:39 a.m.
==Affiliations==
* 1978 'media staff of the 1978 Jeff Bell for US Senate campaign in New Jersey.'Galen Institute Officers and Trustees, accessed 12 May 2010 Bell lost that campaign. Bell was with the Manhattan Institute, and 'is a long time Republican Party operative. He is associated with several rightwing outfits, including the Project for the New American Century, the American Conservative Union, and the Council for National Policy'Rightweb Jeffrey Bell, accessed 13 May 2010
* ? -1982 Heritage FoundationGalen Institute Officers and Trustees, accessed 12 May 2010
*1981-1987 Reagan Administration 'in positions including that of Acting and Associate Director of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships, and Director of the Office of Media and Special Programs at the U.S. Department of Transportation.'Galen Institute Officers and Trustees, accessed 12 May 2010
*1987-2009 Senior Director for Worldwide Policy Mobilization Pfizer IncCached version of American Council on Germany About', created 30 April 2010, accessed 12 May 2010
* ? - 2010 Galen Institute, TrusteeGalen Institute Officers and Trustees, accessed 12 May 2010
*2002-2005 She previously served on the board of patrons of the Stockholm Network, a consortium of more than 100 European think tanks (London) which she helped found (in 1997).Galen Institute Officers and Trustees, accessed 12 May 2010Stockholm Network, About Us, Stockholm Network, Web Archive 01-April-2002, Accessed 09-May-2010Stockholm Network, Patrons and Directors, Stockholm Network, 02-March-2005, Accessed via web archive 10-May-2010Stockholm Network, Directors and Patrons, Stockholm Network, 01-January-2006, Accessed via web archive 10-May-2010
*?-? Previously on the board of the National Review Institute.Galen Institute Officers and Trustees, accessed 12 may 2010
* ?-2010 the Fraser Institute, the leading Canadian free market think tank (Vancouver);Galen Institute Officers and Trustees, accessed 12 may 2010
*-2010 Radio America, a national radio network (Washington);Galen Institute Officers and Trustees, accessed 12 May 2010 
*?-2010the Fund for American Studies, which sponsors educational programs on journalism, economics and politics in the US, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East (Washington);Galen Institute Officers and Trustees, accessed 12 may 2010 
*?-2010The American Spectator, Advisor, an opinion journal (Washington);Galen Institute Officers and Trustees, accessed 12 May 2010 
*?-2010the American Council on Germany, the leading organization promoting exchange between the US and Germany (New York).Galen Institute Officers and Trustees, accessed 12 May 2010 
*?-2010She is on the advisory board of the European Centre for International Political Economy in Brussels.Galen Institute Officers and Trustees, accessed 12 May 2010
==Resources==
*Sourcewatch Catherine Windels
==Notes==
Windels, Catherine