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- Stephen Bennett, President & CEO, United Cerebral Palsy
- Patrick Tutwiler, Project Associate, Life Without Limits, United Cerebral Palsy
Tony Coelho
Chair, Life Without Limits
Tony Coelho, Chair, Life Without Limits
Tony Coelho, Chair, Life Without Limits, has been a lifelong advocate and visionary for people with disabilities.
Tony Coelho was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978 from California's Central Valley. He ascended the House Leadership ranks quickly, serving first as Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee from 1981 to 1986, and then as the first-ever elected Majority Whip from 1987 to 1989. As Majority Whip, the third ranking position in the House leadership, Mr. Coelho was responsible for securing the votes needed to pass the legislative agenda.
While in the House, Mr. Coelho, who has epilepsy, authored the Americans with Disabilities Act, widely recognized as the most important piece of civil rights legislation in the last 40 years. Mr. Coelho also served in senior positions on the Agriculture, Interior, and Administration Committees during his ten years in the House.
In 1999, Mr. Coelho returned to politics when Vice President Gore asked him to serve as the General Chairman of his presidential campaign. Mr. Coelho was instrumental in refocusing the campaign, including relocating its headquarters to Nashville, Tennessee. Mr. Coelho's leadership helped Vice President Gore capture the Democratic nomination while winning every primary and caucus. In June 2000, Mr. Coelho resigned his position due to health concerns but continued as a key advisor to the Vice President.
After leaving Congress in 1989, Mr. Coelho joined Wertheim Schroder & Company, Inc., an investment-banking firm in New York. He served as a Managing Director from 1989 to 1995, and from 1990 to 1995 he also served as President and CEO of Wertheim Schroder Investment Services, a firm that he grew from $300M to $5B of investments. Schroder Bank purchased WSIS in 1995. Later that year, Coelho formed ETC w/TCI, an education and training technology company in Washington, D.C., where he served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer until it was sold in late 1997.
In March 2009, Mr. Coelho was named Chair of the Partnership to Improve Patient Care (PIPC), a coalition focused on raising awareness about the value of well-designed comparative effectiveness research (CER), the important role of continued medical innovation as part of the solution to cost and quality challenges in health care and the need to ensure that proposals to expand the government's role in CER are centered on patient and provider needs. He also serves as Chair of the Disability Power and Pride Committee.
Mr. Coelho's former and current business affiliations include service on a number of corporate boards and also on the boards of two private investment funds: Ripplewood Holdings in New York City and Fairfax Partners in Vienna, VA.
In addition to his work in the private sector, Mr. Coelho continues to devote much of his time to public service. He served President Bill Clinton as Chairman of the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities from 1994 to 2001. In 1993, he was appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives as a member of the Presidential Commission on the Roles and Capabilities of the United States Intelligence Community. In 1997, President Clinton appointed him as the U.S. Commissioner General to the 1998 World Exposition in Lisbon, Portugal. He was then appointed in 1998 by Clinton as Vice Chair to the National Task Force on Employment of Adults with Disabilities and as Co-Chair to the U.S. Census Monitoring Board. He served as Chair of the Epilepsy Foundation of America National Board from May 2005 to April 2007. Since 2002 he has served as Chair of the Advisory Board for Bender Consulting Services (which places people with disabilities in highly skilled jobs). Since 2005, he has served as Chairman of Life Without Limits.
A native of California, Mr. Coelho earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science in 1964 from Loyola Marymount University. He began his career in 1965 as a Legislative Assistant to Congressman Bernie Sisk and served as Mr. Sisk's Chief of Staff from 1971 to 1977 before being elected to the House upon Mr. Sisk's retirement.
