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Biographies of Principals

Chris Lavin

Chris, a former editor of The Oakland (Calif.) Tribune, is a writer and editor with 20 years of experience in the communications field. She has been nurturing e-Elections since its inception in the summer of 1999.

She began work as a cub reporter at her hometown newspaper in Huntington, Indiana, where she worked for former Vice President Dan Quayle's father, Jim. She went on to hold reporting, photography, editing and design positions at seven newspapers across the country, including the Burlington (Vt.) Free Press, San Francisco Chronicle and the (now sadly defunct) Houston Post. She also is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, having established swamp rice cultivation in a remote chiefdom in Sierra Leone, West Africa in the late 1980s.

While Chris worries about the implications of nanotechnology, she truly believes that the Internet has a remarkable capacity to get people (re)involved with their communities and their governments. She is married to a politician and spends her time out of the office attempting to foil the dogged attempts by her toddler twin sons to commit bodily injury.

She earned her bachelor's degree in journalism from Indiana University in 1982.

Dave Dunn

Dave founded e-Elections.com's sister company, MCAnet, more than 10 years ago. He has more than 20 years of advertising and marketing experience on both the agency and client sides of the business. In addition to his key strategic and administrative responsibilities, Dave oversees advertising and other accounts.

Prior to founding MCA in 1990, he was president of Thomas/Rahm in Oakland, Calif. He was senior vice president and a director of Saatchi & Saatchi in San Francisco. His responsibilities there included managing the agency's largest account, Hewlett Packard. On the client side, Dave has worked as a senior marketing executive for a number of consumer products companies including General Foods, Heublein, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Perelli-Minetti Winery and Foster Farms.

He received his bachelor's in economics from Stanford University and his M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.

Jack Lyness

Jack, besides heading up the technology team at e-Elections, is also senior vice president at MCAnet. He has directed the building of major Web sites and oversees MCA's new media development efforts. Before he joined MCA in October 1996, Jack had 25 years of experience as a professional journalist, more than half of that managing California newspapers.

He earned his bachelor's degree in journalism from Indiana University.