Whether it is as an advisor to Presidents Clinton and Obama, founder and president of a prominent think tank and idea journal, a bestselling author, a nationally-recognized economic policy expert, or a business consultant to some of America’s top companies, Andrei Cherny has been a leader on the issues confronting America in the 21st century. Andrei Cherny has made his mark at the intersection of public policy, politics, and government. He has been called a “superstar” by CNN, a “progressive reformer” by Washington Monthly, “smart, bold, and thoughtful” by the Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne, and one of the “more creative thinkers” on the politics of the future by U.S. News and World Report’s Michael Barone.
Cherny is Founder and President of Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, a think tank and quarterly journal of serious thought that seeks to spur new ideas on the big international and domestic challenges of the 21st century. Democracy’s ideas on foreign, domestic, and economic policy have shaped the debate within the Democratic Party and nation overall, and have made their way into the national political debate and into legislation in Congress and states across America. Democracy – available in print and online – has over 30,000 readers in every state and more than 150 countries around the world. In its first year of publication, Democracy was named “Best New Publication” by the Independent Press Awards. The Washington Post wrote that Democracy is “widely read” in the Obama administration, the Philadelphia Inquirer has noted that “one way to guess what Obama might do” is to look to Democracy and the Christian Science Monitor called Democracy the place where “the Democratic Party is being reimagined.”
Cherny has provided policy and strategic advice to Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, Harry Reid, Bill Richardson, Cabinet members, Governors, national labor unions, Fortune 100 CEOs and prominent civic leaders
Cherny worked in the Clinton White House as a senior advisor to Vice President Al Gore and served as a part-time advisor to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and co-author of his campaign policy book, Change We Can Believe In.
He is a former Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. While he there he taught about the major policy issues confronting America and the world.
Cherny is the author of two books. The most recent is The Candy Bombers: The Untold Story of the Berlin Airlift and America’s Finest Hour. Published in April 2008, it examines the Truman Administration’s decision-making in the early years of the Cold War, particularly the 1948-49 Berlin crisis, and offers a unique new perspective on the intersection between national security and the 1948 presidential campaign. It has been called “exciting, inspiring, and wonderfully-written” by Walter Isaacson, like “Stephen Ambrose at his best” by historian Douglas Brinkley, and “everything one could want from a work of history — engrossing, informative and stirring” by the Washington Post Express.
Cherny is also the author of The Next Deal: The Future of Public Life in the Information Age, one of the top-selling political books of 2001, which examined the roles technological and generational change have played over the course of American history and laid out a progressive vision for government and community life in the 21st century. The book detailed how American life is being remade by a new desire for individualized choice and personal decision-making power. The Los Angeles Times praised the book as “visionary in scope” and it has been lauded by everyone from Al Gore to Newt Gingrich who called it “one of the most thoughtful books about…the information age to be produced by anyone of any ideological background.” In 2005, the Financial Times reported that The Next Deal “has become required reading” in Britain’s Labour government.
As the 2000 Platform Director, Cherny was the lead negotiator and chief drafter of the national 2000 Democratic Party Platform. He was charged with conducting the delicate negotiations that led to a deal on a platform that was widely seen as building consensus in the Democratic Party on a range of bold new ideas.
Cherny has written frequently on global economic policy, politics, culture, and history for the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and Investor’s Business Daily. He has appeared as a commentator on television news programs including ABC’s Good Morning America, The Colbert Report, The O’Reilly Factor, and CNN Morning.
Cherny is a former Arizona Assistant Attorney General. Cherny his wife, and son live in Phoenix, Arizona. He is an intelligence officer in the United States Navy reserve. He graduated with honors from Harvard College and from UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall Law School.
