Amo Houghton has served as a United States Representative from the State of New York, 29th Congressional District.

Houghton was a member of the House Ways and Means Committee; chaired the Oversight Subcommittee and was a member of the Trade Subcommittee. He was also a member of the International Relations Committee, was Vice Chairman of its Subcommittee on Africa, and was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as the Congressional Delegate to the 58th General Assembly of the United Nations.

Houghton is the founder of the John Quincy Adams Society, an issues forum which brings together moderate office holders with top business leaders, and is also a founding member of the Republican Main Street Partnership, which seeks to strengthen the political center. Houghton was also Co-Chairman of the Washington-based Faith and Politics Institute.

The only former CEO of a Fortune 500 corporation to serve in the House, Houghton joined Corning Glass Works (now Corning Incorporated) in 1951 after graduating from Harvard University and serving as a Marine during World War II.

The Almanac of American Politics said of Houghton: “He may well be more what the Founding Fathers had in mind...” as the ideal congressman. In 2002, Houghton was inducted into the Academy of Arts and Sciences, the group founded by John Adams and John Hancock in 1780, “dedicated to advancing intellectual thought and constructive action in American society.”

Before entering Congress, Houghton served on the boards of several major corporations, including Procter & Gamble, IBM, Citicorp, N.Y. Telephone, B.F. Goodrich, and Genentech. Appointed by President Reagan to the Grace Commission in 1982, he served as the panel’s vice-chairman. He is a former trustee of St. Paul’s School, the Brookings Institution, a former member of the Harvard Board of Overseers, and past director of the Episcopal Theological Seminary, and holds 16 honorary degrees.

He now serves as a board member of the Republican Main Street Partnership, co-chair of the Committee of the Future - a group committed to the economic revival of Upstate New York - and is a special intern for Bishop Tom Shaw of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. He also serves on the Board of the Open World Leadership Center.