Vice President, External Affairs
Chris Meyer is Vice President, External Affairs for Consumers Union (CU), an expert, independent, nonprofit organization whose
mission is to work for a fair, just, and safe marketplace for consumers. CU publishes Consumer Reports and ConsumerReports.org. Mr. Meyer directs Consumers Union's advocacy and public education efforts, and manages CU's communications and development
operations.
CU has advocacy campaigns promoting reforms in health care, financial services, food and product safety, and media reform.
CU's grant-funded public education campaigns include Web privacy, "green" shopping counsel, and consumer literacy campaigns
aimed to low-income and Spanish-speaking communities. In addition to staff at CU's national headquarters in Yonkers, NY, Mr.
Meyer manages the advocates and attorneys of CU's regional offices in Washington, DC, Austin, Texas and San Francisco, California.
Mr. Meyer has been responsible for a number of innovations at CU, including the development of a database of over 700,000
e-activists that have played critical roles in passage of state legislation, and two landmark federal laws reforming, respectively,
the nation's drug-safety and product-safety systems.
Prior to his promotion to Vice President for External Affairs, Mr. Meyer was Senior Director for Public Policy and Advocacy.
In his current position, he also serves on CU's Operations Committee, which provides the President and CEO with monthly counsel
on all publishing, advocacy, and budget matters.
Before joining Consumers Union in October 2004, he worked for two decades as an organizer, lobbyist and, from 1997 to 2004,
as Executive Director of the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), New York State's largest consumer, environmental
and government reform organization. He developed an expertise on public-health issues, including lead-poisoning prevention,
drinking-water quality, and tobacco control. Mr. Meyer oversaw statewide campaigns on increased higher-education funding and
the successful 1996 environmental bond initiative. He was lead lobbyist on efforts to defeat construction of garbage-burning
incinerators in New York City in the early 1990's. In 1993 he was named "Best Lobbyist" by New York Magazine
A graduate of Haverford College and the New York University School of Law, Mr. Meyer and his wife, Susan Stamler, reside in
Brooklyn with their two daughters.
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