John Patrick McDonough was born July 7, 1950 in Scranton, Pennsylvania and moved to Prince George’s County, Maryland in 1952. He graduated from Bladensburg High School, Bladensburg, Maryland (Class of 1968), Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, B.A. (Class of 1972), and University of Maryland School of Law, Baltimore, MD, J.D. (Class of 1977). He has been a member of the Maryland Bar since 1977.

His employment includes: 1970-1974, Legislative Aide, Prince George’s County Council; 1974-1978 Chief of Staff, Office of the County Executive, Prince George’s County; 1979-1982, Associate, Shipley Firm; 1982-1985, Partner, Cross, Rozner, Edwards & McDonough; 1985-2005, Partner, O’Malley, Miles, Nylen & Gilmore and Managing Partner from 1992-2000. 2006-2008, he opened his own law practice (John P. McDonough, LLC) specializing in land use, zoning, and government. Practiced law for 30 years before being appointed Secretary of State by Governor Martin O’Malley on July 16, 2008.

Political activities include: Counsel, Prince George’s Democratic Central Committee, 2000-present; Vice-Chairman, Prince George’s Democratic Central Committee, 1998-2000. Civic activities include: Member, Maryland Stadium Authority 1986-1994; Vice President, Maryland Chamber of Commerce 1988-1990; Member, Board of Visitors, University of Maryland School of Law 1993-2002; President’s Roundtable, Greater Washington Board of Trade, Leadership Maryland and other civic and charitable organizations, such as Catholic Charities, the Red Cross, and the American Heart Association.

John McDonough has been married to the former Mary Lou Gober since 1972. They have three daughters, Emily, Caitlin and Aisling. They have resided in Mitchellville, MD since 1979.

Michael Unger, Ph.D., is executive in residence and associate professor of management and international business at Loyola University Maryland’s Sellinger School of Business and Management. In addition, he serves as one of eight senior institute associates at the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness authorized to teach Professor Michael Porter's "Global Competitiveness" course, offered in collaboration with Porter's Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at Harvard Business School.

Having held senior policy positions with more than 25 years working on economic development for the U.S. government—both for the treasury and USAID—he has worked in over 35 developing countries and brings extensive experience in international trade, finance, investment, global competitiveness and macro-economic reform. It is this real-world application of the subject matter at hand that conveys an added sense of relevance and creative problem-solving to the classroom. MBA courses taught by Unger at Loyola include Globalization and International Business, Managing in Developing Countries, Global Strategy, and Microeconomics of Competitiveness.

Most recently much of his work has centered on the regionalization of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, as well as the development of clusters and competitiveness of Rwanda and Kenya. He is also a visiting professor at the Strathmore School of Business in Nairobi, Kenya and a senior fellow in Strathmore’s Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness. Current research interests are FDI as well as cluster formation in developing countries.

Unger received his Ph.D. from the Pennsylvania State University, M.A. from Washington University-St. Louis, and B.S. from Ohio State University.