Cato Institute Welcomes Charles Sunderland to Its Board of Directors

WASHINGTON, D.C. — [April 16, 2026] — The Cato Institute announced that Charles “Charlie” Sunderland has joined its Board of Directors. Sunderland is the former chairman and chief executive officer of Ash Grove Cement Company and currently serves as chief investment officer of the Sunderland Foundation. Charlie and his wife, Angie, have supported Cato’s mission as friends of the Institute for more than two decades.

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“We’re delighted that Charlie has joined Cato as a director, further strengthening our outstanding board,” said Peter Goettler, President and CEO of Cato. “He brings to the Institute an outstanding record of experience and success in business, a first-rate intellect, and full alignment with Cato’s principles and mission.”

Sunderland joined Ash Grove Cement Company in 1980, beginning in the credit department. In his nearly 40 years with the company, he served in many roles in the company’s core cement business and led Ash Grove’s real estate subsidiary before becoming chairman and CEO in 2000. During his tenure, the company operated nine major cement plants and three coastal shipping terminals before its sale in 2018.

Sunderland served as chairman of the Portland Cement Association in 2007 and 2008. He has also served as a director on three bank boards, as well as an appointment to the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s 10th District Economic Advisory Council, where he engaged directly with the bank president and senior economists on regional economic conditions and the impacts of Federal Reserve policy during the Great Recession. Sunderland has also dedicated substantial time to health care governance, serving on the boards of the local subsidiary of Columbia Hospital Corporation and the University of Kansas Hospital Authority. 

Sunderland was born in April 1956 in Kansas City, Missouri. He graduated in 1978 from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, earning a bachelor of arts in psychology and business.

“I look forward to actively supporting Cato’s pragmatic nonpartisan approach, in critical libertarian policy development,” Sunderland said. 

About the Cato Institute
The Cato Institute is a public policy research organization dedicated to the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace. Founded in 1977, Cato works to create a free and open society in which liberty allows every individual to pursue a life of prosperity and meaning in peace.

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