Chris Reader is the Chief Operating Officer of the Institute for Reforming Government (IRG), where he directs the organization’s day-to-day operations and leads its policy research and government affairs efforts. Chris has been instrumental in helping grow IRG and launching some of its most significant initiatives, including the Eliminate the Income Tax campaign, the Center for Investigative Oversight, and the IRG Court Watch project. He is also Executive Director of IRG Action Fund, IRG’s affiliated c4 organization, IRG Action Fund, working to translate IRG’s policy and research into real-world impact across Wisconsin.
Prior to joining IRG in 2021, Chris was Senior Director of Workforce and Employment Policy at Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC), where he helped lead Wisconsin’s successful effort to become the 25th right-to-work state and drove the organization’s advocacy on workforce, education, and healthcare policy. Before WMC, he spent nearly a decade working as a top aide and chief of staff in the Wisconsin State Legislature, where he helped advance major policy initiatives from behind the scenes. Chris holds a B.S. in Political Science and Public Administration from UW-Green Bay and lives just outside Beaver Dam, Wisconsin with his wife and two children.