Hume, former Chairman of the Board of Basic American Inc., a San Francisco-based international food service company, was an active leader of business efforts to improve America's educational system. Appointed by Gov. Pete Wilson to serve on the California State Board of Education, he championed such education reforms as "school choice" and actively promoted economic literacy as the Chairman of the Foundation for Teaching Economics.
A former Chairman of the California Academy of Sciences, he served on the boards of the California Council on Economic Education and TEACH America, a Chicago-based organization that promotes school choice. He also served on the board of the Center for Education Reform, which also strongly promotes school choice.