About Bram Kleppner

I am an experienced business leader, activist, and public servant, and I'm a Democrat running for one of Burlington’s two South End seats in the Vermont House of Representatives.
 

For the past 13 years, I served as CEO at Vermont manufacturer Danforth Pewter. Before that, I spent a decade leading international marketing at Ben & Jerry’s. Simultaneously, I dedicated 17 years as Treasurer and Board Chair of the Population Media Center, focusing on global gender equity. Currently, I am on the Board of Directors of Tuttle Printing in Rutland and serve as a Board Advisor at Danforth.
 

I am honored to have been endorsed by outgoing Representative Gabrielle Stebbins, former Governor Howard Dean, and the immediate past Executive Director of the Vermont Women's Fund, Meg Smith, among others.

Throughout my career, I have been committed to addressing issues like climate, environment, health care, gender equity, and tax policy. My public-service roles include:
 

• Serving as the Manufacturer Representative on the Vermont Climate Council, participating in the Steering Committee, the Cross-Sector Mitigation subcommittee, and the Transportation working group.

• Acting as one of three Commissioners on the Vermont Tax Structure Commission, tasked by the legislature with developing recommendations to make Vermont's tax system simpler, fairer, and more sustainable.  We worked for two years, studying the work of previous tax commissions and other states' tax laws, taking testimony from experts and Vermonters around the state, and working through hundreds of suggestions to get to our final recommendations.

• Spending five years as Co-Chair of Vermont’s Medicaid & Exchange Advisory Board to ensure all Vermonters have access to quality health care, and two years on the Governor's Business Advisory Council on Health Care Financing.

I’ve had the privilege of holding leadership roles in business, public policy, and non-profits, and I am excited to use this wealth of experience for the benefit of all Vermonters. Our state faces significant challenges, including affordable housing, public safety, property taxes, soaring health care costs, climate change, and the interconnected issues of mental illness, addiction, homelessness, and crime. These are complex problems, but together, I believe we can tackle them effectively.
 

I’ve lived in Burlington’s South End for 30 years with my wife, Geneviève Henry, who is the Executive Director of The Safety Team (www.thesafetyteam.org). Our three adult children graduated from Burlington High School and attended Vermont colleges, and our 15-year-old is in her second year at Downtown BHS. I graduated from Middlebury College with High Honors and hold an MBA from UVM, where I served as President of the MBA Association.