Two prominent businessmen have been named to the board of directors of the Maryland Public Policy Institute.

William D. A. Zerhouni, CEO of I Cubed Analytics in Howard County, and William L. "Lee" Gaines, Jr. president of Gaines and Company in Baltimore County, were named to the Maryland Public Policy Institute's board which guides decision making for the state's leading conservative free -market policy organization.

The firm Zerhouni leads, I Cubed Analytics, focuses on data mining in the biotech, law and scientific fields. Before founding I Cubed, Zerhouni, who lives in Columbia, served as Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. Before that, Zerhouni served as a patent litigator for the pharmaceutical industry at Covington & Burling and Kirkland & Ellis in Washington, D.C. There, he focused on litigating drug patent cases.

He also advised biopharmaceutical and health care companies on their patent portfolios and evaluated the intellectual property of various growth state companies. .

William L. Gaines, Jr. owns and operates the utility contractor business begun by his father, W.L. Gaines, Sr., in 1954. The business began in small subdivisions in Baltimore County and expanded as the county grew in the 1950s and '60s. The company also has an office in Raleigh, NC. By 1997, it had become the top producing utility contractor in Maryland, and one of the top 10 - 20 producing utility contractors in the country over the past 15 years.

Gaines has served as president and a board member of the Associated Utility Contractors of Maryland and as a longtime board member of the National Utility Contractors Association. A graduate of Yale, Gaines has served as a trustee of Boys Latin School and Gilman School in Baltimore and serves today as a trustee at Yorktown University.

"Will and Lee bring the kind of business expertise, management acumen and knowledge of the Maryland landscape that will make them invaluable members of our board and trusted advisors to our organization," said Christopher B. Summers, president of the Maryland Public Policy Institute. "We are thrilled to have them on board and look forward to their contributions."

The two join a 9-member board, led by Chairman Thomas E. Kelso, which also includes former Maryland Secretary of Business and Economic Development, James T. Brady. Former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. serves as an emeritus member.