Marshall (Mark) Pagon Elected Chair of FPRI’s Board of Trustees 

• May 27, 2026

The Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) is pleased to announce the election of Mark Pagon as Chair of its Board of Trustees. He succeeds Bob Freedman, who has served as FPRI’s Chair since 2003. 

“Bob has been an FPRI Board member for over half of its seventy-year history and our longest tenured Chair. A brief list of his contributions to FPRI cannot convey the sheer breadth and depth of his cumulative legacy. It has been our great, good fortune that he has served FPRI so well for so long – and for that, we are sincerely grateful,” said Aaron Stein, President of FPRI.

Mark has long and deep ties to FPRI. His association began as a college intern under Alan Luxenberg, FPRI’s long time President. He joined FPRI’s Board in 2002 and has served on its Executive Committee and as Treasurer and Finance Chair since 2019.

“As a young freshman at Penn, I was inspired by Robert Strausz-Hupé’s simple imperative that ‘a nation must think before it acts’ and his belief in the United States’ importance in creating and sustaining an equitable, open and peaceful global community of nations, his conviction that geopolitical and geoeconomic policy analysis must be informed by history, geography and culture and that FPRI’s mission be dedicated to providing pragmatic and actionable analysis and commentary to policy makers, scholars and an informed public. In many respects, Strausz-Hupé’s imperative – and FPRI’s mission – are of even greater urgency today than they were at FPRI’s founding over seventy years ago. I am honored by the responsibility FPRI’s Board has entrusted to me and will commit myself to building on the distinguished legacy left by our past Chairs – Robert Strausz-Hupé, Bill Kintner, Keen Butcher, Harvey Sicherman and Bob Freedman,” said Mark Pagon.

“I cannot wait to work more closely with Mark. We have big plans at FPRI. And Mark and I are looking forward to working together to turn our vision into a reality,” said Aaron Stein. 

Mark is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of the Pegasus Companies. During his forty-year career as an entrepreneur, he has been honored as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, has served on the boards of many industry and trade associations and testified before committees of the US House of Representatives and the US Senate. He was educated at M.I.T. (Ph.D. candidate), the University of California (M.A., Chancellor’s Fellow), Reed College (B.A., Phi Beta Kappa), the University of London and the University of Pennsylvania (Benjamin Franklin Scholar).

In addition to FPRI, Mark is also active in the governance non-profits whose missions align with his passions for education and sport, including the World Squash Federation (current, Board), the US Squash Foundation (current, Chair), US Squash (past, Chair), Reed College (past, Board & Executive Committee), the Independence Seaport Museum (past, Board), the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania (past, Board and Finance Chair) and The Agnes Irwin School (past, Board and Audit Chair).

For more information or media inquiries, please contact Leah Pedro at lpedro@fpri.org.