David Brennan

Education is a passion for David Brennan, Chairman of White Hat Management LLC. As an established CEO in the manufacturing world, Brennan saw firsthand the realities of American education. He established Learning Centers at his manufacturing and industrial sites to help his employees overcome education deficits and increase their capacity for success.

His experiences with the Learning Centers led him deeper into the field of education. He served as Trustee at both of his alma maters, The Ohio State University (1953) and Case Western Reserve School of Law (1957). He has also established law chairs at Case and the University of Akron.

In 1992, then-Ohio Governor George Voinovich was looking for someone to head a blue-ribbon commission on education. He tapped David Brennan. The Governor’s commission forwarded a plan that led to significant new opportunities in educational choice across Ohio. In 1997, Brennan received The Governor’s Award for his unique contributions in the field of education.

David Brennan has served public schools, private schools, sectarian, non-sectarian schools, voucher schools, and charter schools. He helped develop private and public scholarship funds, programs and schools for needy children in urban school districts throughout the state. In 1998, Brennan founded White Hat Management a professional educational services firm. Since then White Hat has helped institute 32 new charter schools in Ohio including 13 elementary schools, one high school and 19 Life Skills high school programs. Life Skills Centers have also opened in Arizona, Colorado and Michigan. Distance Learning Schools have opened in Ohio and Pennsylvania to support home school students and their parents.

Life Skills may be Brennan’s most enduring contribution to the field of education. A unique blend of successful educational components, Life Skills helps young people who have already dropped-out of high school get back to school and gain a high school diploma, as well as valuable on-the-job experience. Life Skills high schools in Ohio, which began in September, 1999, have graduated 5,277 students as of December 2004.

In December 2003, Governor Bob Taft, the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate appointed the Ohio Commission to Reform Medicaid to develop recommendations to significantly slow the growth in Medicaid spending through comprehensive reform. Brennan served as Vice Chair of this Commission which provided a year long study of Medicaid and in December 2004 the Commission released their recommendations to dramatically transform the program.

Brennan has built his home and businesses from his life-long residence in Akron, Ohio. He and his wife, Ann, are the parents of four and share the joys of ten grandchildren.