Sally Pipes

Sally C. Pipes is president and chief executive officer of the Pacific Research Institute, a San Francisco-based think tank founded in 1979. Prior to becoming president in 1991, she was assistant director of the Fraser Institute, based in Vancouver, Canada.

Ms. Pipes addresses national and international audiences on health care, women’s issues, and the economy. She has been interviewed on CNN’s “Glenn Beck Show;” NBC’s “Nightly News with Brian Williams;” CNNfn; “The O’Reilly Factor,” Fox News; “Your World With Neil Cavuto,” “The Today Show;” “Kudlow & Company” on CNBC, “Dateline;” “Politically Incorrect;” “The Dennis Miller Show;” and other prominent programs.

She has written regular columns for Chief Executive and Investor’s Business Daily. Currently, she writes a monthly column on health care issues for the Examiner newspapers. Her opinion pieces have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, Financial Times of London, The Hill, RealClearPolitics, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Sacramento Bee, New York Daily News, the Boston Globe, and the San Diego Union-Tribune, to name a few. Ms. Pipes’ views on health care appeared in a special report of the world’s 30 leading health care experts published by Forbes.com entitled, “Solutions: Health Care.”

Ms. Pipes writes, speaks, debates, and gives invited testimony at the national and state levels on key health-care issues facing America. Topics include the false promise of a single-payer system as exists in Canada, pharmaceutical pricing, solving the problem of the uninsured, and strategies for consumer-driven health care. Ms. Pipes debated Paul Krugman, Princeton economics professor and New York Times columnist, in New York at Rockefeller University. She was on the opposing side of the motion “Universal Health Coverage is the Responsibility of the Federal Government.” Sponsored by Intelligence Squared, the debate was attended by 450 people and will be viewed by 270 million around the world through NPR and BBC Worldwide. She was one of Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s four health care advisors in his bid for the Republican nomination for president. She appears in Michael Moore’s movie “Sicko” and has participated in prominent debates and public forums, testified before five committees of the California and Oregon legislatures, appeared on popular television programs, participated in talk radio shows nationwide, and had 127 opeds published on health care issues in 2007.

Her first book, Miracle Cure: How to Solve America’s Health Care Crisis and Why Canada Isn’t the Answer with a foreword by Milton Friedman was released September 28, 2004. In October 2008, her second book The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care: A Citizen’s Guide was released. It has been widely reviewed and quoted. Thomas Sowell in his syndicated column for Creators Syndicate wrote of the book “Before you do anything else, make a note to read The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care. It might literally save your life.” She also co-authored with Spencer Star Income and Taxation in Canada and co-authored with Michael Walker seven editions of Tax Facts.

Ms. Pipes has held a variety of positions in both the private and public sectors. In British Columbia, the Ministry of Consumer and Corporate Affairs appointed her director and vice-chairman of the Financial Institutions Commission.

Ms. Pipes served on the Medical Advisory Council of Genworth Financial’s Long-Term Care Insurance Division in 2006, the national advisory board of Capital Research Center, the advisory board for the Bastiat Journalism Prize, the board of advisors of the San Francisco Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society, the Advisory Board of the California Association of Scholars, and the State Policy Network president’s advisory council. She has served as a trustee of St. Luke’s Hospital Foundation in San Francisco, a board member of the Independent Women’s Forum, and as a governor of the Donner Canadian Foundation. She was a member of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s transition team in 2003-04.

She received the Roe Award at the 2004 annual meeting of State Policy Network. The award is a tribute to an individual in the state public policy movement who has a passion for liberty, a willingness to work for it, and noteworthy achievement in turning dreams into realities. In 2005, she was named one of the Top 10 Women in the Conservative Movement in America as published by Human Events. In 2008, she was honored by the California Women’s Leadership Association. She received the 3rd Annual Women Achievers’ award, “Celebrating the Spirit of Women.” She was also featured in a new book Women Who Paved the Way as one of 35 most outstanding women in business in the nation.

Ms. Pipes, who became an American citizen in 2006, is a member of the Mont Pelerin Society. While in Canada she was a member of the Canadian Association for Business Economics (president for two terms).