Erik Bruvold has been involved with San Diego politics and policy making for 2 decades. Most recently, he was Vice President of Public Policy for the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation (EDC) where he oversaw the organization's public policy efforts on a range of issues impacting San Diego's business climate. Among Erik's achievements at the EDC was his leadership of the successful effort to extend the TransNet sales tax for transportation investment and his leadership of the successful regional response to the 2005 round of military base closures and realignments (BRAC 2005). Prior to joining EDC, Erik was Executive Director for the San Diego chapter of the American Electronics Association where he established the council's local government affairs program, greatly expanded the public presence of the council in the community and authored several opinion and editorial pieces on challenges faced by San Diego's high-tech industries.
A fiscal conservative, Erik also served for two years on the Lincoln Club of San Diego's executive committee as head of the organization's Legislative Affairs Committee. Erik has also served on the board of the North County Economic Development Corporation, the San Diego Association of Government's Transnet Citizens Advisory Committee and numerous committees and taskforces of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce.
A 20 year resident of San Diego, Erik and his family reside in the 4S Ranch community of San Diego.
Economist & Senior Fellow
Kelly Cunningham
Phone: 858-320-7509
Email:
Kelly Cunningham is Senior Fellow and Economist for the San Diego Institute for Policy Research. He is the former chief economist and research director for the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, where he established a reputation for his understanding and expertise of San Diego's regional economy. He was also supervising economist at the City of San Diego and a senior market research analyst for a national apartment developer.
After graduating from Brigham Young University with a degree in business and economics, Cunningham worked in the marketing research department at the corporate offices of the Copley Press, Inc., owners and publishers of The San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper. He joined the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce in 1987 and became director of the Economic Research Bureau. He left to work for the City of San Diego in 2004 and the private builder in 2005.
Cunningham has closely monitored San Diego's economy for the past 23 years. His analysis and views on the San Diego economy are sought by local, state, national and international businesses and media.
Senior Policy Analyst
Vince Vasquez
Phone: 858-320-7503
Email:
Vince Vasquez is the Senior Policy Analyst with the San Diego Institute for Policy Research (SDI). He works on a wide variety of local and regional policy issues, including government taxes & finance, telecommunications, urban life, poverty, and the Latino community.
Mr. Vasquez’s opinion pieces have appeared in many publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Examiner, San Francisco Examiner, Silicon Valley-San Jose Business Journal, Los Angeles Business Journal, San Diego Business Journal, and Liberty Magazine. He has also given extensive media interviews, including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, San Francisco Chronicle, Investor’s Business Daily, New York Sun, local television news, and numerous local and national radio show programs. Mr. Vasquez is an adjunct scholar with the Cascade Policy Institute, a free-market think tank in Portland, Oregon.
Prior to joining SDI, Mr. Vasquez worked at the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy (PRI), a free-market think tank based in San Francisco. While at PRI, Mr. Vasquez authored Digital Welfare: The Failure of the Universal Service System, a study on the Universal Service Fund. He has co-authored numerous policy papers, including Wi-Fi Waste: The Disaster of Municipal Communications Networks, Upgrading America’s Ballot Box: The Rise of E-Voting, and Cutting the Cord: Streamlining the Video Franchising Process. He also worked at the Leadership Institute, a non-profit educational foundation in Arlington, Virginia.
Mr. Vasquez received a B.A. in Political Science at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). While at UCSD, he served as editor-in-chief of the California Review, a conservative journal.
