Oren Cass is the founder and chief economist of American Compass and editor of The New Conservatives: Restoring America’s Commitment to Family, Community, and Industry (June 3, 2025). He is a contributing opinion writer for the Financial Times and the New York Times. His 2018 book, The Once and Future Worker: A Vision for the Renewal of Work in America, has been called “absolutely brilliant” by New York Times columnist David Brooks and “a brilliant book. And among the most important I’ve ever read” by Vice President JD Vance. 

From 2005 to 2015, Cass worked as a management consultant in Bain & Company’s Boston and Delhi offices. During this period, he also earned his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was elected vice president and treasurer of the Harvard Law Review and oversaw the journal’s budget and operations. While still in law school, Cass also became domestic policy director for Governor Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, editing and producing the campaign’s “jobs book” and developing its domestic policy strategy, proposals, and research. He joined the Manhattan Institute (MI) as a senior fellow in 2015 and became a prolific scholar, publishing more than 15 reports for MI and editing its popular “Issues 2016” and “Issues 2020” series, testifying before seven congressional committees, and speaking on dozens of college campuses. He founded American Compass in 2020.