Peter Cove, social activist and businessman, is one of the nation's leading advocates for private solutions to welfare dependency.

During his 28-year career, he has been at the forefront of innovative demonstration projects designed to mitigate poverty by promoting jobs as a solution to welfare dependency. Mr. Cove began his career in the mid-Sixties, as the nation's conscience turned to poverty issues.

After holding key posts in New York City municipal government, he worked for The Community Action Agency in Boston, where he developed grass-roots health, housing and education programs. Later he served as a consultant with Manpower Assistance Project, Inc., a private company partially funded by the Ford Foundation to create community employment systems. He was also a program officer at the New World Foundation in New York City, funding innovative programs in civil rights and education.

With a developing expertise in jobs creation as the solution to social imbalances, Mr. Cove became Director of the Manhattan Project for Wildcat Service Corp., a program geared to the hard-core unemployable. From 1976 to 1983, he was President of Transitional Employment Enterprises. Inc., a private corporation that specialized in placing welfare recipients, the mentally retarded, and the physically disabled in jobs. In experimenting with alternate approaches to training, he created millions of dollars' worth of private-sector investment for what would otherwise have been a fully government-funded endeavor.

As the founder of America Works in 1984, Mr. Cove has worked to link private-sector investment and employment with welfare reform. He believes that private-sector efforts must be tapped by government to solve social problems. In a unique arrangement with states and cities, America Works is paid only if it delivers a person from welfare into employment. It is the only private company in the country doing this today and has removed thousands from welfare rolls.

In leading the company to success, Mr. Cove has fully developed the concept of the privatization of welfare-to-work programs and has become the spokesperson and business developer for this cause. Mr. Cove has appeared on national television and has been quoted in major newspapers, business and public affairs publications. He has testified on aspects of unemployment before Congressional committees in the House and Senate.

In 1995 The Entrepreneur Of The Year Institute gave Mr. Cove its distinguished Socially Responsible Entrepreneur Of The Year award for his achievements with America Works. Born in 1940, Mr. Cove holds a BA in sociology from Northeastern University. He is married to Dr. Lee Bowes, Chief Executive Officer of America Works. Mr. Cove is the father of five children. He lives in New York City.