February Membership Luncheon – Local Economy Solutions

  Michael H. Shuman is an economist, attorney, author, and entrepreneur, and a globally recognized expert on community economics. He is      one of the architects of the crowdfunding reforms that became the “Jobs Act,” signed into law by President Obama in April 2012.  Shuman      is currently Director of Community Portals for Mission Markets and a Fellow at Cutting Edge Capital and Post-Carbon Institute.  He’s also a    founding board member of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE). He is also an adjunct instructor in community                economic development for Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.

  Shuman has authored or coauthored eight books.  His most recent book, published by Chelsea Green, is Local Dollars, Local Sense:  How    to Move Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street and Achieve Real Prosperity. His previous book, The Small Mart Revolution: How          Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition (Berrett-Koehler, 2006), received as bronze prize from the Independent Publishers        Association for best business book of 2006.

  Shuman has written nearly one hundred published articles for such periodicals as New York Times, Washington Post, Nation, Weekly            Standard, Foreign Policy, Parade, and The Chronicle on Philanthropy.  In 1980 he won First Prize in the Rabinowitch Essay Competition of    the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on “How to Prevent Nuclear War.”

 Shuman received an A.B. with distinction in economics and international relations from Stanford University in 1979 and a J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1982.  Between 1987 and 1990 he was a W.K. Kellogg National Leadership Fellow.  He is also a member of both the State Bar of California and the District of Columbia Bar.