Washington, Jan. 11, 2006-Thomas A. Saunders III, a founding partner of the private equity firm Saunders Karp & Megrue, which recently merged with Apax Partners of London, has been elected to the board of trustees of The Heritage Foundation, a prominent think tank.

As a member of Heritage's board, Saunders will help govern the foundation, approve its budget and ensure the 32-year-old policy institute's long-term stability.

Prior to co-founding the New York-based firm in 1990, Saunders served as a managing director of Morgan Stanley & Co. from 1974 to 1989.

While there, he managed a number of noteworthy transactions, including raising more than $3.8 billion of common equity for AT&T over an 18-month period in the early 1980s, a record at the time. He also headed the firm's efforts for the privatization of British Telecom, the first major privatization by then-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and privatizing the U.S. freight railroad, Conrail-the only major privatization to date by the U.S. government.

In addition to Heritage, Saunders serves on several other non-profit boards, including the New York Historical Society and the University of Virginia Investment Management Company. He has previously served on the board of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, where he served as chairman, and on the Board of Visitors of both the University of Virginia and the Virginia Military Institute, respectively.

"Tom's experience in the worlds of high finance and higher education is perfect for Heritage, which is run like a business and sees itself as a university without students," said Heritage President Ed Feulner, who is also a board member.

Saunders received his bachelor's degree from the Virginia Military Institute in 1958 and an MBA from the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business in 1967. He and his wife, Jordan, live in New York City and Locust Valley, N.Y. They have two children and three grandchildren.

Other members of Heritage's board of trustees include: 

• Chairman David R. Brown, a retired orthopedic surgeon, Oklahoma City.
• Vice Chairman Richard M. Scaife, publisher and owner of Tribune-Review Publishing Co. Inc., Greensburg, Pa.
• Secretary J. Frederic Rench, former chairman of Racine Industries Inc., Racine, Wis.
• Douglas F. Allison, former chairman and CEO of Allison-Fisher International Inc., Southfield, Mich.
• Larry P. Arnn, president of Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Mich.
• Belden H. Bell, former ambassador to St. Kitts & Nevis, Marshall, Va.
• Holland H. Coors, former ambassador to the National Year of the Americas, Golden, Colo.
• Midge Decter, author, New York.
• Edwin J. Feulner, Heritage Foundation president, Alexandria, Va.
• Steve Forbes, president of Forbes Inc. and editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine, New York.
• Robert J. Herbold, former executive with Proctor & Gamble and COO of Microsoft Inc., Bellevue, Wash.
• William J. Hume, chairman of the board of Basic American Inc., San Francisco. 
• Kay Coles James, former director of the federal Office of Personnel Management, Fairfax, Va.
• Lee Klinetobe, former president of Hanes Knitwear Corp., Vero Beach, Fla.
• William J. Middendorf II, former Navy secretary and ambassador to the Organization of American States, Little Compton, R.I.
• Brian Tracy, chairman of Brian Tracy International, San Diego. 
• Phillip N. Truluck, Heritage Foundation executive vice president, Washington, D.C.
• Barb Van Andel-Gaby, vice president of corporate affairs for Alticor Corp., Atlanta.
• Marion Wells, co-chairman of the Heritage Legacy Society, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

With more than 275,000 individual, foundation and corporate supporters, The Heritage Foundation is the most broadly supported public policy research institute in the country. The 33-year-old institution has a staff of nearly 200.