Kenneth W. Dam
9th United States Deputy Secretary of the Treasury
In office January 20, 2001 – July 13, 2004
President	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Stuart E. Eizenstat
Succeeded by	Samuel Bodman
ActingUnited States Secretary of the Treasury
In office December 31, 2002 – February 3, 2003
President	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Paul H. O'Neill(as Secretary of the Treasury)
Succeeded by	John W. Snow(as Secretary of the Treasury)
8th United States Deputy Secretary of State
In office September 23, 1982 – June 15, 1985
President	Ronald Reagan
Preceded by	Walter J. Stoessel Jr.
Succeeded by	John C. Whitehead
Personal details
Born	Kenneth Willard Dam (1932-08-10)August 10, 1932 Marysville, Kansas, U.S.
Died	May 31, 2022(2022-05-31) (aged 89) Long Grove, Illinois, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Kansas (B.A.) University of Chicago Law School (J.D.)

Kenneth Willard Dam (August 10, 1932 – May 31, 2022) was an American politician and academic who served asDeputy Secretary of the Treasury (the second highest official in theUnited States Department of the Treasury) from 2001 to 2004, where he specialized in international economic development. He was a senior fellow of theBrookings Institution and aprofessor emeritus and senior lecturer at theUniversity of Chicago Law School.

Kenneth Willard Dam was born inMarysville, Kansas, the son of Ida (Hueppelheiser) and Oliver Dam, a grain and chicken farmer. His grandparents were German and Danish immigrants.^[1] He graduated from Marysville High School, in 1950 and from theUniversity of Kansas in 1954, and earned hisJ.D. degree from the University of Chicago law school in 1957. He then served as a law clerk toUnited States Supreme Court justiceCharles Whittaker in 1957 and 1958. He became an associate at the law firm ofCravath, Swaine & Moore until he joined the University of Chicago as a law professor in 1960, becomingprovost in 1980. Dam was a longtime director of theUniversity of Chicago Law School's program inLaw & Economics.^[2]

Dam held a number of government positions during variousRepublican administrations while on leave from the University of Chicago:

• Program Assistant Director for national security and international affairs at theOffice of Management and Budget (1971–1973)
• Executive Director of the White House Council on Economic Policy (1973)
• Deputy Secretary of State (1982–1985)

After leaving theReagan administration in 1985, Dam became vice president for law and external relations atIBM until 1992. He served aspresident andCEO of theUnited Way of America in 1992, and helped lead an investigation of a highly publicized scandal in the leadership of that organization and reorganize its staff and governance.^[2] He then rejoined the University of Chicago law school faculty.

He has also been anarbitrator, most notably from 1996 to 2001 under the collective bargaining agreement between professionalbasketball players and theNational Basketball Association.^[2] Dam has served on the board of a number of public policy institutions, including theCouncil on Foreign Relations, theChicago Council on Foreign Relations, and the Brookings Institution. He was co-chairman of the Aspen Strategy Group from 1991 to 2001 and was, during 1999 and 2000, chairman of the German-American Academic Council. From 1987 to 2001 he was a member of the board ofAlcoa. He is a former member of the Steering Committee of theBilderberg Group.^[3] He first participated in their annual conference in 1983 when he was Under Deputy Secretary of State. He would miss only one conference between 1983 and 1997 and participate again in 2001 and 2002.

• The Law-Growth Nexus: The Rule of Law and Economic Development, Brookings Institution Press, 2006ISBN 0-8157-1720-2
• The Rules of the Global Game: A New Look at US International Economic Playmaking, University Of Chicago Press, 2001ISBN 0-226-13493-8
• Economic Policy Beyond the Headlines, with George P. Shultz, University of Chicago Press, second edition 1998ISBN 0-226-75599-1
• The Rules of the Game: Reform and Evolution in the International Monetary System, University of Chicago Press, 1982ISBN 0-226-13499-7
• Oil Resources: Who Gets What How?, University of Chicago Press, 1978ISBN 0-226-13498-9

• List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 6)

• University of Chicago law school biography of Kenneth Dam
• Brookings Institution announcement on Kenneth Dam's appointment as senior fellow
• Speech by Kenneth Dam on economic growth in Latin AmericaArchived 2016-04-07 at theWayback Machine
• Works by or about Kenneth W. Dam at theInternet Archive
• Appearances onC-SPAN

• 1932 births
• 2022 deaths
• Atlantic Council
• 20th-century American writers
• 21st-century American writers
• 20th-century American politicians
• Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States
• United States deputy secretaries of the treasury
• United States deputy secretaries of state
• IBM employees
• Members of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group
• University of Kansas alumni
• University of Chicago Law School alumni
• George W. Bush administration personnel
• Illinois Republicans
• People from Marysville, Kansas
• Cravath, Swaine & Moore associates
• Acting United States secretaries of the treasury
• Writers from Illinois
• Writers from Kansas

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