American activist (born 1941)
Edwin John Feulner Jr.
(born August 12, 1941) is a former
think tank
executive, Congressional aide, and foreign consultant who co-founded
The Heritage Foundation
, a
conservative
think tank in 1973 and served as its president from 1977 to 2013 and again from 2017 to 2018.
[1]
[2]
Early years and education
[
edit
]
Feulner was born in
Chicago
, Illinois on August 12, 1941, to Helen Joan (nee Franzen) and Edwin John Feulner, the owner of a Chicago real estate firm. He has three sisters: Mary Ann, Joan, and Barbara. The family comes from a line of devout
Roman Catholic
German Americans
. Three of his maternal uncles were parish priests.
[3]
Feulner attended
Immacultate Conception High School
in
Elmhurst, Illinois
and
Regis University
in
Denver
, where he graduated with a
Bachelors of Arts
degree in English in 1963.
[4]
He attended the
Wharton School of Business
at the
University of Pennsylvania
, where he received an
MBA
in 1964. He was a Richard M. Weaver Fellow at
Georgetown University
and the
London School of Economics
.
[5]
In 1981, he received a
PhD
in political science from the
University of Edinburgh
in Scotland,
[6]
where his doctoral thesis,
The evolution of the Republican Study Committee
, was on the
Republican Study Committee
, a group of
conservative
Republicans
in the
U.S. House of Representatives
.
[7]
Career
[
edit
]
Congressional aide
[
edit
]
Feulner began his career as an analyst for the
Center for Strategic and International Studies
, then called the Center for Strategic Studies. He later became a congressional aide to Wisconsin
Republican
Melvin Laird
. Feulner subsequently became a long-serving executive assistant to Illinois Republican congressman
Phil Crane
. He also served as executive director of the
Republican Study Committee
.
[8]
The Heritage Foundation
[
edit
]
Feulner was a founding trustee of
The Heritage Foundation
from its founding in 1973 until 1977. Four years after its founding, in 1977, he left Representative Crane's office to become the foundation's president.
[9]
At the time, the foundation had nine employees and had been through four presidents since its 1973 founding.
As president of the foundation, Feulner made the foundation more aggressive, market-driven, and less
ivory tower
, and it began publishing easily-accessed and concise studies. By focusing the foundation's marketing, he helped transform Heritage from a small operation into a booming enterprise of conservative ideals, eventually creating a think tank that
Newt Gingrich
, in a
New York Times
column, called "the Parthenon of the conservative metropolis."
[10]
This new marketing strategy was called the "briefcase test", a concept that revolutionized the influence of think tanks on public policy and boosted Heritage's popularity. Its focused on easily accessed, timely, concise research that could fit in a briefcase. A further fillip was the foundation's publishing of policy reports and papers ahead of related legislation, rather than waiting until legislation had been passed, which had been the approach of most think tanks at the time. Feulner told
The Washington Examiner
, "it doesn't do us any good to have great ideas if we are not out there peddling our products."
[8]
Within a year and a half of Feulner becoming president, Heritage's budget increased to $2.5 million and its donor pool grew to about 120,000.
[11]
Under his leadership, Heritage ultimately grew to 250 employees and, with annual income of about $80 million
[10]
and a donor pool of about 600,000, became one of the world's largest think tanks.
[4]
In 1997, Feulner and its Asia policy expert Ken Sheffer co-founded
Belle Haven Consultants
, a
Hong Kong
-based for-profit consulting firm that represented
Malaysia
-based clients. Belle Haven Consultants, in turn, paid over $1 million in fees to
lobbying
firms, which ultimately registered with the
U.S. Department of Justice
as
foreign agents
under the
Foreign Agents Registration Act
.
[12]
[13]
In April 2005,
The Washington Post
reported that the Heritage Foundation softened its criticism of the
Malaysian government
after Feulner initiated a business relationship with
Malaysian prime minister
Mahathir Mohamad
. "Heritage's new, pro-Malaysian outlook emerged at the same time a Hong Kong consulting firm co-founded by Edwin J. Feulner, Heritage's president, began representing Malaysian business interests. The for-profit firm, called Belle Haven Consultants, retains Feulner's wife, Linda Feulner, as a "senior adviser." And Belle Haven's chief operating officer, Ken Sheffer, is the former head of Heritage's Asia office and is still on Heritage's payroll as a $75,000-a-year consultant,"
The Washington Post
reported.
[14]
The Heritage Foundation responded by denying any conflict of interest, stating that its views on Malaysia changed following the country's cooperation with the U.S. after the September 11 attacks,
[15]
and the Malaysian government "moving in the right economic and political direction."
[16]
[17]
In January 2013, Feulner published a column, "Economic Freedom on the Wane", reviewing the findings of the foundation's annual
Index of Economic Freedom
, an ongoing joint project between
The Wall Street Journal
and the Heritage Foundation since 1997. The index measures individual countries' policies in the broad areas of rule of law, limited government, regulatory efficiency, and open markets.
In 2023, Feulner retired as chairman of Heritage's board of trustees, a role he briefly resumed in 2017 following the
2016 election
of
Donald Trump
.
[18]
In September 2023, Feulner endorsed
Mike Pence
in the
2024 Republican presidential primaries
; Pence dropped out of the race the following month, in October 2023.
[19]
Other roles
[
edit
]
In 2014, Feulner served as president and treasurer of the
Mont Pelerin Society
.
[20]
He has served as a trustee and as chairman of the board of the
Intercollegiate Studies Institute
. He has also been a member of the board of the
National Chamber Foundation
,
[21]
the Institut d'Etudes Politiques, and the board of trustees and a life trustee of
Regis University
, his undergraduate alma mater.
He became a member of the advisory council of the
Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
, and was the foundation's chair in 2021.
[22]
[23]
Among other executive and advisory roles, Feulner was president of the
Philadelphia Society
from 1982 to 1983
[24]
and from 2013 to 2014, and is a past director of the
Council for National Policy
, the
Acton Institute
, and
George Mason University
.
[1]
Feulner served as a member of the
Gingrich
?
Mitchell
Congressional UN Reform Task Force in 2005 and of the
Meltzer Commission
from 1999?2000. He was vice chairman of the National Commission on Economic Growth and Tax Reform, known as the
Kemp Commission
, from 1995 to 1996. He was the chairman of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy from 1982 to 1991, a consultant on domestic policy to U.S. president
Ronald Reagan
, and an adviser to several government departments and agencies.
[1]
Awards and distinctions
[
edit
]
In 1989, Feulner received the
Presidential Citizens Medal
, the second-highest civilian award in the United States.
In 2007,
GQ
magazine listed him as one of the "50 most powerful people in D.C."
[25]
In 2007 and again in 2010,
Daily Telegraph
named him "one of the 100 most influential conservatives in America".
[26]
[27]
In 2009,
Karl Rove
, writing in
Forbes
, listed him as the sixth-most powerful conservative in
Washington, D.C.
[28]
He has been awarded eleven honorary degrees, and has received honors from the governments of
Taiwan
,
South Korea
, and the
Czech Republic
.
[
citation needed
]
Personal life
[
edit
]
Feulner and his wife, Linda Claire Leventhal, live in
Alexandria, Virginia
. They have two children.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
"Edwin Feulner"
.
Heritage.org
.
Archived
from the original on July 9, 2022
. Retrieved
January 18,
2018
.
- ^
"Statement From the Chairman of Heritage's Board of Trustees"
.
The Heritage Foundation
. Retrieved
June 4,
2018
.
- ^
Edwards, Lee.
Leading the Way: The Story of Ed Feulner and the Heritage Foundation
, Crown Publishing Group: Random House;
ISBN
9780770435790
(2013)
- ^
a
b
Miller, John. "Feulner's Farewell"
National Review
. 2013.
- ^
"Edwin Feulner"
at
Hillsdale College
- ^
Cloud, Thomas.
"How Heritage President Ed Feulner Became Dr. Feulner"
.
My Heritage Foundation
.
Archived
from the original on January 5, 2022
. Retrieved
March 14,
2019
.
- ^
Feulner, Edwin John (1981).
"Evolution of the Republican Study Committee"
.
Edinburgh Research Archive
.
Archived
from the original on March 14, 2022
. Retrieved
March 14,
2022
.
- ^
a
b
Edwin Feulner: The Heritage Foundation's president revolutionized the Washington think tank scene
[
permanent dead link
]
, Joe Rogalsky,
The Washington Examiner
, October 1, 2007. Accessed May 4, 2012.
- ^
Jennifer Harper (April 10, 2012).
"Inside the Beltway: Apres Rick"
.
Washington Times
.
Archived
from the original on January 19, 2023
. Retrieved
May 3,
2012
.
- ^
a
b
"Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D."
The Heritage Foundation
.
Archived
from the original on January 19, 2023
. Retrieved
February 19,
2016
.
- ^
Miller, John (April 8, 2013). "Feulner's Farewell".
National Review
.
- ^
"Think Tank's Ideas Shifted As Malaysia Ties Grew"
,
The Washington Post
, April 16, 2005
- ^
"Foreign lobbies took the guise of nonprofits"
,
NBC News
, November 3, 2006
- ^
"Think Tank's Ideas Shifted As Malaysia Ties Grew"
,
The Washington Post
, April 16, 2005
- ^
Thomas B. Edsall (April 17, 2005).
"Think Tank's Ideas Shifted As Malaysia Ties Grew: Business Interests Overlapped Policy"
.
The Washington Post
. p. A01.
Archived
from the original on October 25, 2017
. Retrieved
September 16,
2017
.
- ^
"
"Heritage hails Malaysia's bold economic policies.",
Asia Africa Intelligence Wire
"
. January 5, 2005.
Archived
from the original on January 17, 2012
. Retrieved
March 22,
2010
.
- ^
"Heritage Foundation advocated for Iraq war?"
Archived
2016-05-29 at the
Wayback Machine
Real Time with Bill Maher
.
- ^
"Edwin Feulner"
.
The Heritage Foundation
.
Archived
from the original on July 9, 2022
. Retrieved
December 5,
2021
.
- ^
Mueller, Julia (September 26, 2023).
"Former Reagan administration officials endorse Pence"
.
The Hill
. Retrieved
September 26,
2023
.
- ^
William H. Peterson (March 7, 2006).
"A blueprint for rightists"
.
The Washington Times
.
Archived
from the original on October 4, 2015
. Retrieved
May 3,
2012
.
- ^
"Imprimis archive: Lay Your Hammer Down: Commencement Address to the Hillsdale College Class of 2004"
.
Imprimis
. Hillsdale. 2004.
Archived
from the original on May 29, 2010
. Retrieved
May 3,
2012
.
- ^
"National Advisory Council"
.
Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
. Archived from
the original
on June 10, 2011
. Retrieved
May 20,
2011
.
- ^
"Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D"
.
Victims of Communism
.
Archived
from the original on May 24, 2022
. Retrieved
December 5,
2021
.
- ^
phillysoc.org
Archived
February 23, 2010, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
The 50 Most Powerful People in D.C.
Archived
March 29, 2008, at the
Wayback Machine
, Raha Naddaf and Greg Veis,
GQ
; accessed March 2, 2008.
- ^
The most influential US conservatives
,
The Telegraph
, March 11, 2007; accessed April 5, 2016.
- ^
"Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D."
The Heritage Foundation
.
Archived
from the original on January 19, 2023
. Retrieved
February 22,
2016
.
- ^
"Karl Rove Picks The Seven Most Powerful Conservatives"
.
Forbes
. November 11, 2009.
Archived
from the original on June 18, 2022
. Retrieved
December 5,
2021
.
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