Mailing address
Littauer 362
79 JFK Street
Cambridge, MA, 02138
Ben Heineman
Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Contact:
Telephone: 617-496-7305
Fax: 617-495-8963
Email: ben_heineman@harvard.edu
Experience
Mr. Heineman is a graduate of Harvard College (1965), Oxford University (1967 -- graduate degree/political science) and Yale Law School (1971). A former Rhodes Scholar, editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal and law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, he practiced law in Washington before serving at HEW from 1977-1980, ending his tenure there as Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. Mr. Heineman was then managing partner of the Washington office of Sidley & Austin, focusing on Supreme Court and test case litigation. He is the author of books on British race relations and the American presidency. In 1987, Mr. Heineman became Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of the General Electric Company located in Fairfield, Connecticut. In 2004, he was named GE's Senior Vice President for Law and Public Affairs. Mr. Heineman is a member of the American Law Institute; a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; a member of the Board of Trustees of the Center for Strategic and International Studies; a member of the Board of Transparency International-USA; a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Constitution Center; and a member of the Board of Managers and Overseers of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
While at the Belfer Center, he will research and write on a wide variety of public and private sector issues, including the global anti-corruption movement, corporate citizenship and social responsibility, the changing role of the corporate general counsel and the inside legal department, the corporate response to terrorism, corporate governance, and corporations and public policy.
November 17, 2009
"Defining Corporate Citizenship"
Op-Ed, On Leadership at washingtonpost.com
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"In this period of economic turmoil and dislocation, with cut-backs in government spending and reductions in foundation endowments and outlays, the need for corporate philanthropy has never been greater. Such philanthropic expenditures are usually a tiny percentage of a corporation's costs, but they remain vital, especially now."
AP Images
November 11, 2009
"The Ugly End-Game"
Op-Ed, On Leadership at washingtonpost.com
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"Everyone standing outside the center of the process can advocate their position: the bill must have this or that. Everyone standing outside the center can say if the president and speaker and majority leader and committee chairs had any backbone, they wouldn't do the deals with the powerful interests and abandon vital principles.
But the people at the center have to count -- and get -- the votes."
AP Images
November 2, 2009
"Petraeus, not Westmoreland"
Op-Ed, On Leadership at washingtonpost.com
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"I think it is the grappling with important problems with greater-than-expected candor, genuine authenticity and extraordinary sacrifice that accounts for the military's high standing. The chosen military messengers often convey that. Can we say the same of other sectors of society: hard problems, candor, authenticity, sacrifice?"
AP Images
October 6, 2009
"In Praise of Meetings"
Op-Ed, On Leadership at washingtonpost.com
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"Properly conceived and run, meetings are not air, but action, not a nettlesome diversion but an important instrument. They are also vital after decisions are made."
AP Images
October 2, 2009
"Corruption--The Afghan Wild Card"
Op-Ed, The Atlantic Monthly
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"But-- and here it becomes vexatious-- how can this be done by a weak, corrupt government during a dangerous insurgency, especially after a contested election marked by serious fraud? And, if corruption is not effectively addressed in a short time frame, does this undermine -indeed checkmate--- the ultimate military mission as expressed by President Obama earlier this year to disrupt, dismantle and eventually defeat al Qaeda and prevent their return to Afghanistan by defeating the Taliban insurgency."
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September 29, 2009
"A Budapest B-School Teaches Leadership at the Crossroads"
Op-Ed, Harvard Business Review
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"In this era of upheaval, CEU Business School's aspiration - to merge teaching and research on business and society with traditional commercial subjects to train leaders for markets in transition - applies to all nations, developing and developed."
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September 15, 2009
"Channeling the 'Animal Spirit'"
Op-Ed, On Leadership at washingtonpost.com
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"Four fundamental, interrelated governance actions inside corporations are essential to create real economic value (not the paper chase that brought the sector low), to enhance accountability, to increase the confidence of investors and other stakeholders and, in this era importantly, to ensure that the public trust and public mission of finance is honored."
AP Images
August 31, 2009
"Power Outage"
Op-Ed, On Leadership at washingtonpost.com
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"In the multi-polar world of today's foreign affairs, we obviously have no great adversary---no crusade in Europe, no containment of world communism. For the moment, the great powers alternatively compete over economics and resources and haltingly (hypocritically?) seek to cooperate on global problems like climate change. Ours instead is an era of asymmetrical threats originating from failed and failing nations, where there is searing (though not yet nation-threatening) death and destruction involving military units and civilians and only shadowy, incomplete victories."
iStock
August 17, 2009
"Getting Your Fix"
Magazine or Newspaper Article, Corporate Counsel
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"The fixed fee is not an easy answer to the economic conflicts between firms and corporate clients. But the current economic crisis makes it imperative to have greater predictability and regularity on billing and payment for both law firms and corporate clients. Beyond economic necessity, the fixed fee provides the opportunity for better cooperation on money, just as the enhancement of in-house lawyers has made for much better cooperation on matters."
iStock
August 11, 2009
"Beware the Idolatry of Numbers"
Op-Ed, The Atlantic Monthly
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"Whether in the public sector or the private sector, leaders must at a minimum have the intellectual courage and strength to form red teams and blue teams which fight over the fundamentals of the analysis and isolate and challenge the assumptions which, when eroded, erode in turn the apparent precision of mathematical or systems models."
