Ted Howard is the co-founder and president of The Democracy Collaborative, an action-oriented progressive think tank established 20 years ago in the United States. The Guardian newspaper has identified him as "the de facto spokesperson for community wealth building" internationally. He is also recognized as a leading authority on leveraging the economic assets of health systems, universities and other anchor institutions to benefit communities, particularly those that are most disadvantaged and marginalized. He previously served as the executive director of the National Center for Economic Alternatives and the Steven Minter Senior Fellow for Social Justice at The Cleveland Foundation. He has also served as a consultant for the World Bank and the UN Development Programme. His most recent book, entitled The Making of a Democratic Economy, will be published in summer 2019.