BIO HADDOW

C. McClain “Mac” Haddow Biography 

Mac Haddow is currently a partner at Upstream Consulting, a government relations, public affairs and management consulting firm based in Washington DC. Mac has been involved in government relations activities since 1986 when he left this position as chief-of-staff at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to go to the private sector. During his tenure at HHS, Mac served for a year as the Acting Administrator of the Health Finance Administration - HCFA (now the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services – CMS) during the major overhaul of the government reimbursement system for healthcare services delivered to Medicare and Medicaid patients. After leaving HHS, and prior to joining Upstream Consulting in 2010, Mac worked as an independent government relations consultant to a number of clients with interests in legislative and regulatory issues, and worked extensively with non-governmental advocacy organizations in designing grassroots and social media campaigns on lobbying the public relations campaigns. Mac attended Brigham Young University with a major in organizational communications, and minor political science, before joining the first Orrin Hatch for Senate campaign in 1976 where he served as campaign manager. Following Senator Hatch’s successful bid for office, Mac served as Hatch’s administrative assistant, and later helped coordinate fundraising and re-election campaign efforts for the Senator. In 1979, Mac was elected to the Utah House of Representatives from the 25th district that covers the Salt Lake City suburb of Sandy, Utah. During his tenure in the Utah House, Mac was recognized as a leader in promoting lower taxes and more efficient government. Mac sponsored the repeal of Utah's Prevailing Wage Law (equivalent to the federal Davis-Bacon Act) that served to artificially increase the cost of taxpayer-funded public works projects and to restrict competition by non-union contractors for state construction contracts. Following the successful passage of the repeal legislation, Mac successfully led the effort to overturn the veto issued by Governor Matheson. Mac was recognized as the “Legislator of the Year” by the Utah Associated Builders And Contractors Association in 1981, and was recognized by numerous tax advocacy groups for his work to reduce the tax burden on Utah families. In 1982, after an active involvement in the campaign of Ronald Reagan for the presidency, Mac was offered a position in the Reagan administration, which led to his appointment as the chief-of-staff at HHS. Mac has spent the last 36 years happily married to his best friend, Ali. They are the proud parents of six children, and proud grandparents of six grandchildren. Mac maintains an active involvement in his community, including presently serving as the president of the Oak Valley Homeowners Association; president of the Western Prince William Homeowners Alliance; Board Member of the Windsor Park Homeowners Association in Provo Utah; Board Member of Rise Up Prince William (a community nonprofit promoting philanthropic activities); co-chairman of the Gainesville Magisterial District Budget Committee; and actively serves in church leadership positions.