David G. Meissner

David G. Meissner (’60) is the retired president and chairman of the Public Policy Forum (now known as the Wisconsin Policy Forum). He is a Phi Beta Kappa and History Honors graduate from the UW Madison. As a Woodrow Wilson Fellow he obtained his Masters Degree in American History at the University of California-Berkeley. Following service as a naval officer, he joined The Milwaukee Journal as a reporter and editorial writer. In the latter role his responsibilities were in the fields of economics, foreign policy and national defense. This led to his attaining a Professional Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University in 1968-69 and a Ford Foundation Fellowship at the Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University in 1977. He also lectured in Europe in 1980 on his areas of responsibility under the auspices of the State Department. He left the Journal in 1981 and made a 180 degree tum to become Executive Director ofthe Greater Milwaukee Committee and focus on Downtown renewal. That was followed by becoming a partner and ultimately managing partner of the public relations frrm Barkin, Herman, Solochek and Paulsen. After the firm went through a merger, he took over the Public Policy Forum in 1995, leaving as chairman in 2005. Growing up in suburban Whitefish Bay (MKE), he comes from three generations of Badgers and has been active with the university over time on the L&S Board of Visitors, the Pathways to Excellence Committee, the Honors Program 50th Anniversary Committee and the Memorial Union Board of Trustees.