Inside Job: How Government Insiders Subvert the Public Interest

Mark Zupan

Topic: Inside Job: How Government Insiders Subvert the Public Interest
Date: Tuesday, February 10, 2026
Place: Irondequoit Country Club: 4045 East Ave. [14618]
Time: 6:00 Cocktails; 7:00 Dinner; 8:00 Speaker Presentation followed by Q and A
Cost: $60 per person ($62 if paying online), buffet style. Cash Bar
Dinner: Buffet style – 2 protein options, 1 vegetarian option

***Registration Policy: For reservations, please email MemberServices@WACROC.org and remit payment ($60/pp) to: WACR, PO Box 25462, Rochester, NY 14625 OR
go to Meeting Registration – World Affairs Council of Rochester (wacroc.org) and register on-line ($62/pp to cover bank fees) no later than February 3.

Mark Zupan, Phd is the 14th President of Alfred University, a position he has held since 2016. Prior to Alfred University, Zupan was dean and professor of economics at two leading business schools: The University of Rochester, Simon Business School (2004-2016) and the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management (1997-2003). Before that, he was on the faculty of the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business (1986-1996) attaining tenure there while also serving as associate dean for master’s degree pro-grams. He was a visiting professor in the Amon Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College in the fall of 1995.

As a member of the USC faculty, Zupan won several awards, including the university-wide Burlington Re-sources Foundation Faculty Achievement Award for Outstanding Scholarship, and a Golden Apple award for MBA teaching excellence. During the years, he has served on the editorial boards of such academic journals as Public Choice, Economic Inquiry, and the Journal of Business Economics.

While earning his Ph.D. degree in economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Zupan taught in the economics department at Harvard University, where he earned his B.A. degree in 1981, twice receiving the Allyn Young Teaching Prize from the economics department and earning the university-wide Joseph B. Levenson Memorial Teaching Prize.

His fields of specialization include industrial organization, regulation, and political economy. He has published more than 20 refereed articles in leading scholarly journals and three books. His commentaries have appeared in media outlets such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Arizona Republic, Busi-nessWeek.com, Huffington Post, Kiplinger, Financial Times of London, San Francisco Chronicle, and the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.