Robert A. Gleason Jr.

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Robert A. Gleason Jr. serves as Chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party.

Gleason is Chairman and CEO of Gleason, Inc. He joined the family’s business in 1965, after four years of active duty as a Captain in the United States Air Force. Gleason Insurance Company is ranked among the 150 largest property and casualty insurance brokers in the United States. In the past, he served as Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from 1985 to 1987.

In 1996 he succeeded his father, Robert A. Gleason Sr. as Chairman of the Cambria County Republican Committee. In 1993, the late Pennsylvania Governor Robert P. Casey nominated him to be a member of the five-person Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission. A position in which he served until 1997. In 1997 Pennsylvania Governor Thomas J. Ridge appointed Rob to the State Transportation Commission.

A 1961 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, Rob remains very active in the University. In 1998, he was appointed a Trustee of the University of Pennsylvania. Gleason has also served as a trustee of St. Francis College, Loretto, PA from 1978-1988 and was the Vice Chair from 1991-1992.

Rob has always believed in community involvement and is affiliated with various civic, philanthropic and professional organizations. He is a director and secretary for the Foundation of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown and is also a trustee and former Chairman of Memorial Medical Center, a trustee of Conemaugh Health System, and Chairman of the Parish Finance Council of the Church of Our Mother of Sorrows.

In 2004 Rob was named Co-Chairman for the Catholics for Bush in PA. Rob is currently member of the Catholic Advisory Committee of the Republican National Committee.

In May 2006, President George W. Bush announced his intentions to nominate Mr. Gleason to the Commission on Presidential Scholars.