For Immediate Release
	December 17, 2002
	Contact: Carol McKay
	202-835-3323
	media@nclnet.org

Issue Dynamics’ Sam Simon Named New Chair of National Consumers League

  WASHINGTON , D.C. --Sam Simon, founder and president of Issue Dynamics, Inc. (IDI), has been named to serve as the new chair of the National Consumers League (NCL) board of directors. Simon brings 32 years of public affairs and consumer issues experience to the post. Founded in 1899, the National Consumers League is America ’s pioneer consumer organization. The nonprofit works to identify, protect, represent, and advance the economic and social interests of consumers and workers.

NCL President Linda Golodner said: “We are delighted to have someone of Sam’s consumer advocacy caliber serving as the head of our board as we take on the challenges and opportunities of 2003. The National Consumers League will be served well by the fact that Sam Simon has the right kind of experience and savvy about the new high-tech world in which we live.”

“I am honored to have been selected to assume this important post,” Simon said.  “My devotion to consumer protection issues dates back some 32 years to my role as one of the original Nader Lawyers.  I take on this important duty with a clear understanding of the critical need for strong consumer voices in a climate that is increasingly unreceptive to the concerns of average Americans.”

Simon is a nationally recognized authority on consumer and public affairs. He is a published author, having written three books and several articles. He also has testified before Congress on many occasions. Simon has served on the NCL board of directors for nearly 20 years and for the last four years as chair of the board’s Development Committee on the board of directors at NCL.

Until 1986, Simon served as president of the Telecommunications Research and Action Center , the nation’s oldest and largest consumer group concerned exclusively with telecommunications issues. He is a lawyer, graduating with honors from the University of Texas Law School in 1970, and he worked as one of the first lawyers for Ralph Nader.

In November 2002, Simon was named by Governor Mark Warner to serve on the Virginia Rehabilitative Services Advisory Board. Simon is also a member of the board and secretary of the World Institute on Disability; Commissioner, Fairfax County Consumer Protection Commission; Member, Board of Overseers, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion; and Chairman of the Board of the Telecommunications Research and Action Center.  

The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America 's pioneer consumer organization. Its mission is to identify, protect, represent, and advance the economic and social interests of consumers and workers. NCL is a private, nonprofit membership organization. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.

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