American Compass Embarks on New Phase of Growth

American Compass, the think tank responsible for shaping conservative economics, is rapidly expanding its team and the reach of its initiatives.

Since launching in 2020, American Compass has grown from peripheral upstart to center of gravity in the debates roiling conservatism and the Republican Party. Compass has charted the course for innovative approaches on issues ranging from globalization, trade, immigration, and industrial policy to labor, education, family, and budget policy. Its membership group of 200 young policy professionals represents the future leadership of American conservatism across politics and public policy, journalism, media, and law. 

As Senator Marco Rubio has observed, “Compass is doing as much or more to shape the national conversation and our economic policy than Washington’s largest think tanks. I look to American Compass for advice and ideas, and the number of my colleagues who do also is staggering.”

The organization is embarking on a new phase of growth to meet its increasing responsibility for defining the conservative policy agenda and fostering the most important conservative debates.

• Founder and executive director Oren Cass will transition to the role of chief economist, effective July 1, allowing him to expand his research , writing, and commentary, including through a new Substack, Understanding America, launching today.

• Abigail Ball, who joined American Compass as communications director in its first summer and has led development of all facets of the organization’s public profile, will assume the executive director role.

• Mark A. DiPlacido joins in the role of policy advisor. DiPlacido most recently served as deputy policy director for the DeSantis presidential campaign and has prior experience at the Heritage Foundation, on Capitol Hill, and in the office of the U.S. Trade Representative. 

• Drew Holden joins in the role of managing editor. Holden was most recently a staff writer at the Washington Free Beacon and has prior experience at leading public affairs firms and on Capitol Hill. 

With these additions, American Compass is relaunching The Commons as the comprehensive publication for making sense of conservative economics. The Commons will be home to wide-ranging commentary from the American Compass team, Compass Advisors, and a slate of regular columnists including Patrick T. Brown, Micah Meadowcroft, Henry Olsen, Aaron Renn, and John Sailer. Oren Cass will edit a weekly essay series, the Compass Point, featuring in-depth explorations on a wide range of economic, political, and cultural issues. Recent essays include Dean W. Ball on AI’s role in reindustrialization and Matt Feeney on the reasons for skepticism about the idealized conservative concept of civil society. 

The American Compass Podcast is also now released on a regular weekly schedule, featuring serious conversations on an extraordinarily wide range of topics. Recent episodes have featured Micron Technology’s Scott Gatzemeier on implementation of the CHIPS Act, the Carnegie Endowment’s Michael Pettis on the downside of dollar dominance, the Foundation for American  Innovation’s Thomas Hochman on nuclear energy, Johns Hopkins’s Ashley Rogers Berner on educational pluralism, the Marathon Initiative’s Robert Delfeld on the defense-industrial base, the Wall Street Journal’s Brody Mullins on corporate lobbying and Dana Mattioli on Amazon’s anti-competitive conduct, the New York Times’s David Leonhardt on neopopulism, the Center for Immigration Studies’ Mark Krikorian on the border crisis, and Congressmen Jodey Arrington (R-TX) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) on closing the budget deficit. Subscribe to hear tomorrow’s episode with Newsweek’s Batya Ungar-Sargon on working-class political attitudes.