Rob Kampia

Rob Kampia is co-founder and executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, the largest 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization in the U.S. that is solely dedicated to ending cannabis prohibition.

Kampia grew up in Harleysville, Pennsylvania, a small suburban town 30 miles (48 km) northwest of Philadelphia. Kampia was valedictorian of his 300-person graduating class at Souderton Area High School in 1986, served three months in prison from November 1989 to February 1990, for growing cannabis for personal use at Penn State University, and was elected student body president two years later at that same school. Three days after graduating with honors from Penn State in 1993 with a bachelor's degree in engineering science (a multidisciplinary honors program) and minor in English, he moved to Washington, D.C., for the purpose of ending the government’s war on marijuana users.

Rob Kampia co-founded MPP in 1995. MPP has a lobbying branch, an educational branch, and a political action committee and is based in Washington, D.C. MPP employs 27 full-time staffers, as well as consultants to pass statewide ballot initiatives and lobbyists to pass legislation through state legislatures.

As executive director, Kampia has been quoted in almost every major newspaper in the U.S., discussed the cannabis issue dozens of times on local and national radio, appeared on national TV more than a dozen times, and has testified before Congress on two occasions.

In August 2009, seven MPP staffers quit over an alleged incident of sexual misconduct by Kampia involving a female subordinate after an office happy hour. According to former employees, department heads at the organization unanimously asked Kampia to move into a different position than executive director over the incident. Following his statement that he was "hypersexualized,", Kampia was "encouraged" by the MPP board of directors to take a three-month leave of absence and his return is subject to "convincing the board he has dealt with his issues." This reportedly resulted in a cancellation of the MPP's annual fundraiser at the Playboy Mansion, with MPP's acting director indicating that "the PR ramifications of holding the event right now are probably obvious" Kampia likened the incident to the Monica Lewinsky scandal, saying he could remain in charge just as Bill Clinton did.

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