Lawrence J. McQuillan is a Senior Fellow, Director of the Center on Entrepreneurial Innovation, Founder and Director of the California Golden Fleece® Awards, and Assistant Editor for The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy at the Independent Institute. He received his Ph.D. in economics from George Mason University, and he has served as Chief Economist at the Illinois Policy Institute, Director of Business and Economic Studies at the Pacific Research Institute, Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and Founding Publisher and Contributing Editor of Economic Issues. Dr. McQuillan is the author of the books, California Dreaming: Lessons on How to Resolve America's Public Pension Crisis and the forthcoming Reverse Course: Fixing California's Water Crisis.

Mary L. G. Theroux is Senior Vice President of the Independent Institute. Having received her A.B. in economics from Stanford University, Ms. Theroux is Managing Director of Lightning Ventures, L.P., and Vice President of the C.S. Lewis Society of California. She is former Chairman of the Advisory Board for the Alameda County Salvation Army; former Chairman and current member of the San Francisco Salvation Army Advisory Board, and also serves on the National Advisory Board of The Salvation Army. Ms. Theroux was also Chairman of Garvey International, Inc., and Co-Founder, President, and CEO of San Francisco Grocery Express, Ltd. Articles on Ms. Theroux have appeared in Business Week, Forbes, Savvy, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and other publications.