John Calhoun Wells
Biography
John Calhoun Wells
Director, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service
" Visionary managers understand that the relationship with their
employees and employee unions can be a significant asset in their competitive strategy for
today’s marketplace. And visionary union leaders understand that their members have
as much stake in the success of a company as any stockholder. Our job at FMCS is to help
management and labor transform that understanding into a more cooperative working
relationship so that everybody can win."
John Calhoun Wells
Appointed by President Clinton as the thirteenth Director of the Federal
Mediation and Conciliation Service, John Calhoun Wells has turned his philosophy into
action, extending the agency’s focus and expertise far beyond mediating contract
disputes at the collective bargaining table, although traditional contract mediation will
always be a core responsibility for FMCS. Through bold initiatives in structure,
technology and training, Wells is committed to keeping the Service at the forefront of
labor-management relations in the United States.
A native of Eastern Kentucky, John was once an hourly worker and member of
the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union. He earned a B.A. from the University of
Kentucky, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Planning and Public Policy from Rutgers University.
After teaching at Rutgers for three years and authoring numerous publications on
labor-management relations, he won a Research Fellowship at Harvard University’s John
F. Kennedy School of Government, where he worked on issues of innovation in collective
bargaining and labor-management relations.
In 1975, Wells became Special Assistant to U.S. Senator Wendell Ford
(D-KY), handling labor issues and legislation. Then in 1978, he returned to his native
Kentucky and was appointed the first Secretary of Labor for the Commonwealth, serving in
the administrations of Governors John Y. Brown and Martha Layne Collins.
He moved to Texas in 1988 to become Director of the prestigious John Gray
Institute at Lamar University in Beaumont. In 1991, he opened a successful management
consulting business, assisting companies and unions in developing new relationships based
on working together to achieve mutual self-interests. His clients included a number of
Fortune 500 companies and their unions.
Nominated as Director of FMCS in 1993, John Calhoun Wells brings to the
position unique background and perspective in union, management, academic and policy
matters, and broad experience managing organizations with 25 to more than 1,000 employees.
John and his wife, the former Charissa Ann Christopher, reside in Reston,
Virginia.
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