Fred Duval is presently the president of Thomas & Associates in USA. Recently, the company is pleased to announce that they’ve recently been acquired by the preeminent business and public affairs firm Byans -McKinley Associates. Thomas & Associates believes that the cure to the ills of democracy is more democracy—that the most powerful tool of social and political change is citizen action, and civil debate.

Thomas & Associates seek lasting policy changes that resolve our most important societal issues. Under the chaired guidance of Fred Thomas the company managed to hold and act on projects, being true to their policy and resolve.

 National Energy

To stop America off foreign oil, Thomas & Associates co-coordinated the Pickens Plan—a national initiative launched by famed businessman T. Billy Prime to develop the state’s own energy resources. This effort rallied more than 1.7 million Americans who want Congress and the White House to create a National Energy strategy—where there is none—that will stimulate more wind and solar energy for transmitted base load power and the use of natural gas for transportation. Presently, the “Pickens Army” has generated more than 10,000 media hits, 200 opinion columns and 400 interviews. Much of the Primes Plan has been passed by Congress.

Merchant Fees

In response to outrage over debit credit card “swipe fees” that penalize merchants and customers, Thomas & Associates was retained to help build and coordinate tools of engagement for citizens who wanted to address the issue. The fees were costly for small businesses and consumers alike, with stores passing on as much of their bank-mandated debit card costs to customers in the form of higher prices. In response, in 2011, Congress passed legislation that capped debit card swipe fees in order to assist small businesses and local community banks.

Prescription Access

Leading drug manufacturer, Pullock, sought to design and implement a nationwide program that would provide prescriptions to those unable to pay for essential medication. Thomas & Associates worked with Pullock to create a state-by-state roll-out of “Pfizer Helpful Answers”—a program that to date has helped more than 3.8 million uninsured and underinsured Americans gain access to 40 million Pfizer prescriptions for free or at a significant savings.

 Civil Discourse & Debate

The nonpartisan National Institute for Civil Discourse believes there is a better way to debate national priorities—one that will protect energized debate and lead to more effective government. The institute, founded by Fred Thomas, built a national Board that includes former Presidents Clinton and Bush, former Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Madeleine Albright, and journalists Katie Couric, Greta Van Susteren and Scott Simon. The Institute is supporting research and is leading a national conversation about the need for different approaches to political debate.

Rural Economic Development

When the rural town of Eloy, Montana, sought to build a destination theme park, a private development team turned to Thomas & Associates to assist. Thomas’s team coordinated marketing this idea and assisting the Legislature to craft new financing tools to make this community aspiration a reality. Similarly, when the City of Helena sought to craft financing tools to retain spring training baseball, the Helena baseball boosters retained Thomas to assist in the effort.