Project Staff

Charles Taylor

Charles Taylor is the Director of the Pew Financial Reform Project. Taylor was formerly the Director of Operational Risk at the Risk Management Association, a Managing Director at the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, an Associate Partner at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), and the Executive Director of The Group of Thirty. He holds a B.A. from Cambridge University, an M.Phil. in Economics from Oxford University, and an M.B.A. from the Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania.

Joseph Kennedy

Joseph Kennedy, a Senior Officer in Pew's Economic Policy Group, is a member of the Financial Reform Project. Kennedy is formerly the Chief Economist at the Department of Commerce and a Senior Economist on the Joint Economic Committee. He holds a B.S. from Georgetown University, a M.S. and a J.D. from the University of Minnesota and a PhD in Economics from George Washington University.

Gordon McDonald

Gordon McDonald is the Financial Reform Project Manager. McDonald was formerly an Assistant Director in the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution. He was a Senior Research and Policy Associate at the Retirement Security Project, a Senior Researcher at the Annenberg Public Policy Center and an equities trader in New York and Denver. He holds an A.B. from Lafayette College and an M.P.P. from Georgetown University.

Michael Crowley

Michael Crowley is a Senior Associate in the Economic Policy Group at Pew. Crowley was a Legislative Assistant at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld, an Executive Officer at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Project Coordinator at the Global Aging Initiative (GAI) and a Staff Assistant in the Office of U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski. He holds a B.A. from the University of Rochester and an M.A. from John Hopkins University.

Joan Riggs

Joan Riggs is an Associate at the Financial Reform Project. She formerly was the business manager for an independent financial services firm, and an investment consultant to foundations and families. She holds a B.A. from Kansas State University, an M.B.A. from the University of Colorado, and an M.I.P.P in international relations from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Demis Mavrellis

Demis Mavrellis is an Associate at the Financial Reform Project. Prior to joining Pew, he was at the Atlantic Council with their Global Business and Economics program. Before that, he worked in Brussels at the Council of the European Union and has served as an attaché for an EU member state's embassy here in Washington, DC. He has also worked for Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow. He holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan and an M.A. in international affairs with a concentration in economics from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).

Cynthia Magnuson

Cynthia Magnuson is a Senior Associate for Communications, working with the Financial Reform Project.  Formerly a Department of Justice spokeswoman and media advisor to the Civil Rights Division, she also served an eleven-month detail with the Justice Department in the U.S. Embassy, Baghdad, and was most recently a project consultant to a United Nations Development Programme.  She received a B.A. in government and women's studies from the College of William and Mary. 

Katherine Portnoy

Katherine Portnoy is an intern at the Financial Reform Project.  She worked with the Department of State in the Consular Section, a non-profit law office, and the University of Vermont as a research assistant.  She wrote her senior honors thesis on the political and economic considerations of selecting a pipeline route from Azerbaijan's Caspian Sea to the West.  She holds an A.B. from Lafayette College.