James A. Guest is an American lawyer and consumer advocate. He currently President and CEO of Consumers Union, a position he was appointed to in 2001 after 20 years as Chairman of the Board of CU.
After graduating from Harvard, he completed a Woodrow Wilson fellowship in economics from MIT. In the early 1970's, he served as a Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA). Guest then moved to Vermont, where he was appointed State Commissioner of Banking and Insurance before being elected Secretary of State of Vermont in 1976. He garnered 47% of the vote against U.S. Senator Robert Stafford in 1982. He lost election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1988. Mr. Guest currently resides in Vermont.