BOB CHITESTER
Executive Producer
Bob Chitester is founder and president of Free To Choose Network and its production and educational initiatives Free To Choose Media and izzit.org. With more than 40 years of experience creating programs and series for public television and as president of the Erie public television station WQLN, Bob Chitester continues to be creatively involved in the creation of programs and series for Free To Choose Media and izzit.org.
In partnership with his colleague Tom Skinner (senior executive producer at Free To Choose Media) Bob has served as executive producer for The Power of Choice: the Life and Ideas of Milton Friedman (on PBS), The Ultimate Resource (American Public Television), The Power of the Poor (PBS), Globalization at the Crossroads with Hernando de Soto, and Turmoil and Triumph: The George Shultz Years, a three-part documentary series for PBS.
In 1980 Bob Chitester brought Milton Friedman to public television and was responsible as executive producer for Friedman’s landmark PBS series Free To Choose and the best-selling book that emanated from the series. Free or Equal, hosted by Swedish author Johan Norberg, is his latest production — re-examining the impact of Free To Choose more than thirty years later.
Bob Chitester holds BA and MA degrees from The University of Michigan and has received an honorary Doctor of Literature degree from Allegheny College.
On the personal level, he pursues physical fitness (running, swimming and biking), indulges in wood and clay sculpture, reads poetry publicly, is a hunter and cuts several cord of fire wood each year, when he is not flying about in airplanes as part of his responsibilities at Free To Choose Network. Bob and his wife, Carol, have 4 children and 8 grandchildren, one of whom they are raising in their home.
TOM SKINNER
Executive Producer
Tom Skinner is executive producer of all Free To Choose Media productions.
Tom is an award-winning television and film executive producer, most notably of the National Geographic specials and Planet Earth. He is an experienced innovator and administrator with a solid academic background, and extensive national and international production credentials in public and commercial television.
From 1970 through 1993, Tom Skinner served as vice-president, executive vice-president, and chief operating officer of QED Communications, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1993, he left to pursue opportunities in independent production for A&E, Discovery and Turner Broadcasting. From 1994 through 1999, he was vice president for programming at Resolution Productions.
Prior to his tenure at QED Communications, Tom was assistant manager at WITF-TV in Hershey, Pennsylvania and associate professor of Radio and Television and executive producer at San Diego State University. He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards including: four national Emmy Awards, two George Foster Peabody Awards, and a Columbia/DuPont Award; and was director of the Academy Award-winning film Journey Into Self.
Tom holds a BA degree in Speech and Education from the State University of New York, Fredonia; an MA in Communications from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in Communications and Theatre from The University of Michigan.
Tom is married to Marlis Mann of Leland, Michigan; he has 3 children and 7 grandchildren.
DAVID deVRIES
Producer
David deVries has produced, directed, written and often photographed television documentaries in twenty-six countries for American and international networks. He has created films on subjects from wildlife and the environment to science and the arts. In recent years his work has focused on historical subjects. Credits include: T.R.: An American Lion (The History Channel), Egypt: Beyond the Pyramids, and The True Story of the Bridge on the River Kwai.
One of David’s most recent projects is Fields of Freedom, a widescreen film which he wrote and directed for a new visitor center at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The thirty-minute, pay-per-view drama recreates Pickett’s Charge, the heroic but suicidal action on the third day of this critical battle.
David has developed and created work for the award-winning nature series Survival for Britain’s Anglia Television and The World About Us for the BBC. In addition, he has created documentary programming for CBC, NBC, A & E, The Discovery Channel and Time-Life, among others.
His dramatic credits include writing and directing Home At Last, a period drama starring Adrian Brody for PBS. Hes directed episodes for Laurel Entertainment’s syndicated series Tales From the Dark Side and the Fox Network series Class of 96. He has developed numerous dramatic projects as a producer/director for Disney Pictures and Disney Television.
David studied acting and directing with Uta Hagen at the Bergoff Studio in NYC. He lives on a farm in upstate New York.
