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Steven L. Hayes - FloridaChair of the Board of Directors, President
Steven L. Hayes graduated with honors from the University of Arkansas and the University of San Francisco Law School. As a self-described “recovering” tax attorney he spent considerable time and resources investigating alternatives to the income tax. Based on his research, including interviewing tax practitioners, business owners, employees and economists, he determined the best solution was to eliminate the income tax and the IRS and replace them with a national retail sales tax collected by the states. In 1990, Mr. Hayes joined and became President of Citizens For An Alternative Tax System (CATS), a non-profit 501(c)(4) lobbying organization, which was the 1st organization dedicated to the idea of replacing the federal income tax with a national sales tax. He was also instrumental in forming the Florida FairTax® Educational Association, Inc., (FFETA) and currently serves on the FFETA board of directors. Hayes has appeared on hundreds of radio and television shows, had numerous articles published in newspapers and magazines, and regularly speaks to groups of citizens around the country about why we must eliminate the income tax and the IRS and replace them with a national retail sales tax. Mr. Hayes has testified before the House Ways & Means Committee and former Congressman Jack Kemp’s Tax Reform Committee. He is widely sought after as a subject matter expert on tax reform panels and forums.
Randy Fischer - FloridaBoard Member, Vice President, and Marketing Team Leader.
It was a short leap for Randy Fischer to move from private advocate for insureds, self-insurers and insurance carriers where he conducted over 300 jury trials, to fighter for tax reform. After multiple not so friendly encounters with IRS Randy became aware of HR-25 The FairTax Act. He founded several local groups to support FAIRtax in Florida in the early 2000's but his busy legal practice forced him to step away.
Upon retirement in 2012, Randy immediately planned to become a public policy advocate for the tax reform he had supported for more than a decade. That public policy was a total replacement of our existing income tax system and IRS. Now, more than a decade later he is just as passionate that we, as a nation, must stop taxing income so that workers keep 100% of what they earn.
Using his skills in marketing, communication, advertising and research he stepped on to a position as Marketing Director for Florida FairTax Education Association taking over a dormant social media campaign. He quickly expanded it to grassroots advocacy and helped coordinate Florida's growing FAIRtax movement. He was added to the Board of Directors in 2012 quickly undertaking adoption of platforms to do letters to the editor, Twitter advocacy. and assisted in a major campaign to get Florida Legislators to adopt Senate Memorial 118 to acknowledge HR-25 the national FAIRtax Bill as the best tax reform for Florida. The last decade has included post cardcampaigns, targeted flyers, working with FAIRtax Power Radio and attending events and rallies.
In 2014 as a transition was ongoing at the Americans For Fair Taxation he was nominated to be first a Delegate then a Director with AFFT taking over national social media and other communications duties. And the rest as they say is history. In early 2024 Randy was asked to step up as Vice President of Americans For Fair Taxation.
Randy has appeared on radio and podcasts along with live broadcasts on Facebook and YouTube. He is married to his high school sweetheart and relocated from their small farm in Ocala, Florida to Gainesville, Florida home of the University of Florida. Randy jokes that he is addicted to great blues music, terrific southern bar-b-cue and his collection of early American political campaign memorabilia.
John Grafer - TexasVice Chair of the Board of Directors, Treasurer
John Grafer was elected to the AFFT Board of Directors in 2014. He is a member of Satori Capital's investment committee and a board member of FWT, Longhorn Health Solutions, and California Products Corporation. Prior to joining Satori in 2009, John was senior vice president of Giuliani Partners, an investment and consulting firm founded by former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. Before joining Giuliani Partners in 2003, John was a member of the mergers and acquisitions group at Credit Suisse First Boston, a member of the proprietary trading group at J.P. Morgan Chase, and a team member at Ernst & Young, where he earned his C.P.A. John has also assisted a family office with early stage investments in sustainably managed companies including Honest Tea. John is a first-round judge for the McCloskey Business Plan competition at the University of Notre Dame. He received a B.B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and an M.B.A. in finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. John enjoys unique and adventurous challenges. He rode his bicycle from New York City to Montreal, earned his HAZMAT certification to remediate an anthrax-contaminated building, and survived The SEAL physical training course.
James M. Bennett - New JerseyBoard Member, Secretary, and Grassroots Leader
Jim Bennett, Secretary and Grassroots Director, was a FairTax advocate before ever hearing about the FairTax, having decided that consumption taxes were the best option. He heard about the Fair Tax on the radio in 2005 and decided immediately to dedicate himself to the cause. Jim retired several years ago from the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office after a nearly 20-year career there. Jim holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History from Lafayette College and a Juris Doctor from New York Law School. He also took graduate law courses in International Law at the NYU Law School before leaving for overseas. His career started in Mannheim, Germany, with the US Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps. Jim then took a position at Gerling-Konzern, an insurance conglomerate in Cologne, Germany, where he worked for three years. He was transferred to New York, where he became a Vice President. Jim later took a position as a Vice President and General Counsel at the Colonia Insurance Group, a US branch of a German insurance company in New York. Jim is fluent in German. Jim started a private law practice in Summit, New Jersey in 1990 before taking his position at the New Jersey Attorney General’s office. Jim lives in Summit, New Jersey, with his wife, Christine. Jim and Christine have three adult children and seven grandchildren. Jim enjoys sailing, volunteering in the local Lions Club, volunteering on the Executive Committee of his local Republican party, and appearing at town council meetings on various civic issues. He writes the weekly Grassroots Corner that goes out to the FAIRtax subscriber base.
Brad Carver - GeorgiaBoard Member
Brad is the Senior Managing Director of Government Affairs at the law firm of Hill, Booth, Smith, P.C. in Atlanta. He is also a member of many other practice groups within the firm: Government Affairs, Energy, Regulatory and Utilities, Environmental, Mass Torts and Land Use, and International and Business Litigation.
Brad is the Republican District Chairman of the 6th Congressional District of Georgia and a member of the Executive Committee of the Georgia Republican Party. He has also been Chairman of the Election Confidence Task Force since 2021 and helped pass SB 202, the Election Integrity Act of 2021. He was an alternate delegate to the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, and a delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio. Prior to Hall Booth Smith, P.C., Brad worked for Miller & Martin, Alston & Bird, the Georgia Municipal Association, and Georgia Power Company.
During law school, Brad deployed with the Army to Tuzla, Bosnia, from May 1996 to January 1997 as the Commander of a Detachment of the 341st Adjutant General Co. and was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal. In September 2003, Brad returned to Atlanta from a 14-month tour of duty in Kuwait and Iraq, where he supported 3rd Army as the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for exceptionally meritorious service during combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq during Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.
Brad retired after 28 years of service at the end of 2018 from the U.S. Army Reserves in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, with his last duty position being Team Leader at Fort Rucker, Alabama.
Brad believes that the burdens of government ought to be shouldered by everybody. Brad also likes the FAIRtax because it allows you to decide when you pay your taxes and how much you pay based on how much you choose to spend. Brad favors selling the FAIRtax first at the state level.
Brad lives in the City of Atlanta. He is married with two sons, Bradley and Wesley. Brad and his wife belong to the Crossroads Christian Church in Dunwoody, Georgia.
Dr. Tony Urbanek - TennesseeBoard Member
Dr. Tony Urbanek, holds a B.S. in Chemistry from John Carroll University, Cleveland Ohio, a D.D.S. from Indiana University School of Dentistry, and M.S.in Cell Biology and Anatomy from Indiana University School of Medicine, and an M.D from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee, along with his training as an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon. Tony was also a Research Fellow in Facial Growth and Development at the National Institute of Health.
Tony has helped 76 million women in the United States who suffer from TMD. TMD is a disorder of the jaw muscles, temporomandibular joints, and nerves associated with chronic facial pain. Ninety percent of those who suffer from this disorder are women. Tony, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon, was dissatisfied with dispensing standard treatments. Tony invented, developed, and patented the “Urbanek Device and Protocol.” Separating the posterior teeth over two months, followed by using the device for sleeping, the patient experiences relief from the symptoms. There had been dental and basic scientific literature for sixty years indicating this fix - but in separate buckets. Tony combined the two.
Tony launched TMJ Services LLC in 2013 to support manufacturing and distributing his non-surgical, FDA-approved, and independently university-study-validated device and protocol. He has a manufacturing facility.
Aside from his device and protocol, he started medical clinics in Jamaica and Haiti. In Haiti, he literally persuaded patients to forsake witch doctors for medical treatment. Tony is also an avid pilot and past President of the Flying Physicians Association. Other accolades in Tony's resume are too numerous to fit in a Grassroots Corner.
Tony has been an avid supporter of the FAIRtax since 1991, when he first met our President, Steve Hayes. As early as 1991, he sent materials educating and supporting the FairTax to 500 doctors in his professional network throughout Middle Tennessee. In 2014, he founded Fair Tax Tennessee Inc., which is proud to be included and supported by the AFFT central organization today.
Tony lives in Brentwood, Tennessee. He and his wife, Ann, have three children, seven grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
Dr. Karen Walby - FloridaBoard Member, Economist
Dr. Karen Walby graduated from Ohio State University with a doctoral degree in Political and Economic Geography and brings over 20 years of experience in tax policy and administration to the FAIRtax movement. She has been in academia, state government, and the private sector.
Dr. Walby began her career as a Research Consultant with the Florida Resource and Environmental Analysis Center while holding down another position as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Florida State University. She became an economist for the Florida Department of Commerce, where she performed analytics to help Florida attract new businesses to the state. While at the Department of Commerce, she provided information to the Governor's Office, causing the Governor's Office of Planning and Budgeting to recruit her.
Dr. Walby was promoted to Policy Coordinator for Tax and Economic policy during the Bob Graham Administration (Graham was Governor of Florida from 1979 to 1987). Then-Governor Bob Martinez appointed her to Deputy Director of the Governor's Office of Planning and Budgeting (Martinez was Governor from 1987 to 1991).
Dr. Walby’s career took her to the legislative branch to serve as Senior Tax Policy Analyst for the first Florida Tax & Budgeting Reform Commission. This commission met every ten years afterward. Following her work with that Commission, Dr. Walby directed the Florida Unemployment Compensation Tax Program during the Administration of Governor Lawton Chiles (Chiles was Governor from 1991 to 1998).
Dr. Walby also worked in the private sector. She was the first Director of Research for Florida TaxWatch, Inc., a nonprofit organization that oversees tax and spending policy. She was also a senior consultant for Price Waterhouse Coopers, LLP, researching and consulting in government affairs for nonprofit organizations and small businesses.
Dr. Walby first became interested in consumption taxes while working in Governor Graham's tax policy unit. The Governor asked the team to estimate the impact of a national consumption tax on state revenues and the Florida economy. The team found that such a tax change would significantly boost both.
In 2004, Leo Linbeck, Jr., CEO of Americans for Fair Taxation, approached her about conducting paid research for the FAIRtax. She enthusiastically accepted.
Dr. Walby now volunteers for our cause. She serves as a Board Member of Americans for Fair Taxation and as Treasurer of the Florida FairTax Educational Association, a 501(c)(3) organization in Florida.
Dr. Walby lives in Clearwater, Florida, with her husband, Mike. Her two sons and three grandchildren live nearby.
James R. Duffie - GeorgiaBoard Member
Jim Duffie served in the U. S. Navy from June 1961 to July 1968, the last 4.5 years of that time as a NUKE, operating the nuclear reactor and secondary systems on the nuclear submarine, USS Skate (SSN-578), as well as chemist and radiation controls expert. He then studied nuclear engineering at Georgia Tech.
Duffie has had a successful career in real estate and mortgage businesses, spanning more than 40 years. Additionally, he has invested in several start-up business ventures, and helped numerous others access the capital markets over the last 30 plus years. He has many continuing philanthropic interests, some of which will have world changing outcomes. He is an original co-founder of A Better Life Experience, LLC, which is now ABLELIFE BIOTECH, INC., of which he is Chairman, CEO, and CFO. Marketing a water and air purification technology which will save millions of lives worldwide!
Duffie has been an advocate to eliminate the U. S. and Georgia income tax systems and replace them with the FAIRtax model consumption tax. He has served as State Director and member of the BOD of Georgians for Fair Taxation, and member of the BOD of Americans for Fair Taxation for 20 plus years.
Jim Duffie has been married to Mary for 58 years, has 3 sons, 10 grandchildren, and 2 great grandchildren. He is active in his church, the Kiwanis Club of Atlanta, and a lead volunteer with USO Georgia, and other important initiatives!
Martin Sturmer - CaliforniaBoard Member
Martin Sturmer received his BS in Business Administration, with a concentration in Finance, from California State University Sacramento, where his interest in business and finance got its start.
Martin recognized the need for tax reform long before the Tea Party held its first protest, growing out of his frustration at having to file tax returns in 6 different states because his Wife was a partner in a NY law firm. The whole system was mind-boggling.
His search for an organization devoted to tax reform ultimately led him to Americans For Fair Taxation, a grass roots organization devoted to eliminating the federal income tax system and replacing it with a federal consumption tax as best expressed by The FAIRtax, which would also eliminate the need for the IRS as an enforcement agency. Martin currently serves as the State Director in California.
Ron Babin - MichiganBoard Member
Ron grew up and lives in the “Great Lakes State” and enjoys sailing in Lake Huron.
After graduating from Central Michigan University with a B.S. Business Administration with a Major in Accounting, he worked for a private manufacturing company based in Detroit as Assistant Controller. After working his way up to division General Manager, he returned to school at Walsh College where he received a Masters of Science in Finance. Ron has since run his own business assisting small employers in administrative procedures with a focus on becoming computerized with in-house accounting systems and user-friendly database programs.
After seeing the significant negative impact the tax system had on businesses, Ron started his FAIRtax involvement in 2004 as the District Director covering Michigan’s 10th & 12th Congressional districts. Given his diverse business background and thorough understanding of The FAIRtax, he accepted the position of Michigan Deputy State Director for FAIRtax.org in mid-2005, and then President of The Michigan FAIRtax Association in 2017. Ron was elected to the Americans For Fair Taxation Board of Directors in 2019.