Edwin Feulner | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Feulner in 2011 | |
| President of theHeritage Foundation | |
| In office May 2, 2017 – January 1, 2018 | |
| Preceded by | Jim DeMint |
| Succeeded by | Kay Coles James |
| In office February 16, 1977 – April 4, 2013 | |
| Preceded by | Frank Walton |
| Succeeded by | Jim DeMint |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Edwin John Feulner Jr. (1941-08-12)August 12, 1941 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | July 18, 2025(2025-07-18) (aged 83) Alexandria, Virginia, U.S. |
| Party | Republican |
| Spouse | Linda Leventhal |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | Regis University (BA) University of Pennsylvania (MBA) University of Edinburgh (PhD) |
| Awards | Presidential Citizens Medal (1989) |
Edwin John Feulner Jr. (/ˈfʊlnər/;[1] August 12, 1941 – July 18, 2025) was an Americanpolitical scientist,think tank executive,congressional aide and foreign relations consultant who was co-founder ofThe Heritage Foundation, aconservative think tank in 1973. He served as the Heritage Foundation's president from 1977 to 2013 and again from 2017 to 2018.[2][3]
Feulner was born inChicago, Illinois, on August 12, 1941, to Helen Joan (née Franzen) and Edwin John Feulner, the owner of a Chicago real estate firm. He had three sisters: Mary Ann, Joan, and Barbara. The family were devoutRoman CatholicGerman Americans. Three of his maternal uncles were parish priests.[4]
Feulner attendedImmaculate Conception High School in Elmhurst, Illinois, andRegis University inDenver, where he graduated with aBA degree in English in 1963.[5] He attended theWharton School of Business at theUniversity of Pennsylvania, where he received aMBA in 1964. He was aRichard M. Weaver Fellow atGeorgetown University and theLondon School of Economics.[6]
In 1981, he received aPhD in political science from theUniversity of Edinburgh in Scotland,[7] where his doctoral thesis,The Evolution of the Republican Study Committee, was on theRepublican Study Committee, a group ofconservative Republicans in theU.S. House of Representatives.[8]
Feulner began his career as an analyst for theCenter for Strategic and International Studies (then called the Center for Strategic Studies). He later became a congressional aide to WisconsinRepublicanMelvin Laird. Feulner subsequently became a long-serving executive assistant to Illinois Republican congressmanPhil Crane. He also served as executive director of the Republican Study Committee.[9]
Feulner was a founding trustee ofthe 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.[10] At the time, the foundation had only nine employees.[11][12]
As president of the foundation, Feulner made the foundation more aggressive, market-driven, and lessivory tower, and began publishing easily-accessible, concise studies. By focusing the foundation's marketing, he helped transform the foundation from a small operation into a booming enterprise of conservative ideals, eventually creating a think tank thatNewt Gingrich, in aNew York Times column, called "theParthenon of the conservative metropolis."[2] The 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, referring to a focus on easily accessed, timely, concise research that could fit in a briefcase. Additionally, the foundation's policy reports and papers were published ahead of related legislation rather than after it had been passed, as most think tanks did at the time. Feulner toldThe Washington Examiner: "it doesn't do us any good to have great ideas if we are not out there peddling our products."[9]
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.[5] Under his leadership, Heritage ultimately grew to 250 employees and, with annual income of about $80 million[2] and a donor pool of about 600,000, became one of the world's largest think tanks.[5]
In 1997, Feulner and Heritage's Asia policy expert Ken Sheffer co-foundedBelle Haven Consultants, aHong Kong-based for-profit consulting firm that representedMalaysia-based clients. Belle Haven Consultants, in turn, paid over $1 million in fees tolobbying firms, which ultimately registered with theU.S. Department of Justice asforeign agents under theForeign Agents Registration Act.[13][14]
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In April 2005,The Washington Post reported that the Heritage Foundation softened its criticism of theMalaysian government after Feulner initiated a business relationship withMalaysian prime ministerMahathir 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.[13] 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 theSeptember 11 attacks,[13] and the Malaysian government "moving in the right economic and political direction."[15][16]
In January 2013, Feulner published a column, "Economic Freedom on the Wane", reviewing the findings of the foundation's annualIndex of Economic Freedom, an ongoing joint project betweenThe Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation since 1997, measuring individual country's policies in the broad areas of rule of law, limited government, regulatory efficiency, and open markets.[17]
In 2023, Feulner retired as chairman of Heritage's board of trustees, a role he briefly resumed in 2017 following the2016 election ofDonald Trump.[2]
In September 2023, Feulner endorsedMike Pence in the2024 Republican presidential primaries; Pence dropped out of the race the following month.[18]
Feulner wrote theafterword for theProject 2025 policy guide, titled "Onward!", published in April 2024.[19][20][21]
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In 2014, Feulner served as president and treasurer of theMont Pelerin Society.[22] He served as a trustee and as chairman of the board of theIntercollegiate Studies Institute. He was also a member of the board of theNational Chamber Foundation,[23] theInstitut d'Etudes Politiques, and the board of trustees and a life trustee ofRegis University, his undergraduate alma mater.[2]
He became a member of the advisory council of theVictims of Communism Memorial Foundation, and was the foundation's chair in 2021.[24][25]
Among other executive and advisory roles, Feulner was president of thePhiladelphia Society from 1982 to 1983[26] and from 2013 to 2014, and was a onetime director of theCouncil for National Policy, theActon Institute, andGeorge Mason University.[2] Feulner served as a member of theGingrich–Mitchell CongressionalUN Reform Task Force in 2005 and of theMeltzer Commission from 1999 to 2000. He was vice chairman of the National Commission on Economic Growth and Tax Reform, known as theKemp Commission, from 1995 to 1996. He was the chairman of theU.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy from 1982 to 1991, a consultant on domestic policy to U.S. presidentRonald Reagan, and an adviser to several government departments and agencies.[2]
In 1989, Feulner received thePresidential Citizens Medal, the second-highest civilian award in the United States.[27] He was awarded eleven honorary degrees, and received honors from the governments ofTaiwan,[28]South Korea,[29] and theCzech Republic.[30]
In 2007,GQ magazine listed him as one of the "50 most powerful people inD.C."[31] In 2007 and 2010,Daily Telegraph named him "one of the 100 most influential conservatives in America".[32][2] In 2009,Karl Rove, writing inForbes, listed him as the sixth-most powerful conservative inWashington, D.C.[33]
Feulner and his wife, Linda Claire (née Leventhal), lived inAlexandria, Virginia, for over 50 years. They had two children.[34]
Feulner died at home in Alexandria, on July 18, 2025, at the age of 83.[35][36][37]
