Chris Tessone Director of Finance and Operations; Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow

Chris Tessone is the Director of Finance of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and a Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow, where he is responsible for financial and operational issues, including overseeing the organization's budget and endowment investments and coordinating many aspects of Fordham's strategy, operations, and personnel management. He also works on specific policy projects in governance and school finance and is especially interested in pensions and teacher compensation. In addition, Chris edits the Stretching the School Dollar blog.

Prior to Fordham, Chris worked in the hospitality industry, including three years as an associate in the Atlanta and Paris offices of the Vagus Group, a boutique management services firm. Chris was an Education Pioneers fellow at the DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education during the summer of 2010 consulting on the District's financial products for public charter schools.

Originally hailing from the Land of Lincoln, Chris holds an M.B.A. in Finance and Decision Sciences from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, where he was a Fuqua Scholar, and a B.A. in Russian with College Honors from Knox College. He and his wife live in Silver Spring, MD.