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Edwin Feulner

President of The Heritage Foundation

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Edwin Feulner Biography

Edwin J. Feulner's leadership as President of The Heritage Foundation has transformed the think tank from a small policy shop into America's powerhouse of conservative ideas.

Under Feulner, Heritage's presence in Washington grew from a nine-member staff working out of a rented office on Capitol Hill in 1977 to a 220-person organization occupying two office buildings near the U.S. Capitol today.

"This has been a conscious goal of The Heritage Foundation—to be a permanent Washington presence," Feulner wrote in the introduction to one of his books, The March of Freedom. "We have set out to make conservative ideas not just respectable but mainstream. To set the terms of national policy debate. To offer not a lament for a lost America, but positive, practical, free market alternatives to the failed liberal policies of the old order."

Feulner's work in the conservative movement throughout his life earned him praise from a range of individuals including Heritage donors and U.S. Presidents.

"By building an organization dedicated to ideas and their consequences, he has helped to shape the policy of our Government. His has been a voice of reason and values in service to his country and the cause of freedom around the world," read the citation of the Presidential Citizens Medal, given to Feulner on Jan. 18, 1989, by President Ronald Reagan.

Feulner's leadership was recognized twice in 2007. First, GQ magazine named him one of "Washington's 50 most powerful" as voted by the city's "top think tankers, congressional aides and political journalists."  And in November that year, the London Telegraph named him one of the 100 most influential conservatives in America. 

Feulner first joined The Heritage Foundation as a founding Trustee in 1973. He later became President in 1977, Heritage's fourth in four years. After accepting the job, Feulner was determined to chart a new course for the struggling think tank.

He did not want to lead a group of academics that would write studies, place them on a shelf and hope someone important would read them. Instead, Feulner decided that Heritage would operate like a business that expected progress from its analysts and results from their policy studies. Heritage would achieve these results by creating timely, concise studies and aggressively marketing them to Congress, policymakers and the media.

This "briefcase test" concept became a model for other think tanks to follow. In fact, Heritage's success has led many liberals to try to create a "liberal Heritage Foundation" to counter the think tank's influence. "[Conservatives] worked on it for 30 years and they've got it," former President Bill Clinton complained in a 2003 appearance on NBC's Today show. "They've got everything from The Heritage Foundation, the sympathetic newspapers, to sympathetic cable programs ?"

This didn't happen by accident. Feulner works tirelessly. He travels more than 150,000 miles a year, crisscrossing the United States and the globe to meet with leaders and help spread the ideals of individual liberty, economic freedom, rule of law and family values.

"Although his ways are entirely unassuming, one pauses ? to wonder how Ed Feulner manages as he does," wrote National Review founder William F. Buckley Jr. in an introduction to The Power of Ideas, a 1997 book on Heritage's history. "It helps that he disposes of the requisite biological and temperamental attributes—the capacity to go many hours without sleep, to travel endlessly attending to caseloads of work, to endure a day of meetings that begin at breakfast and end at midnight."

Feulner's schedule is often full because of the many hats he has worn over the years: He is the former President and currently serves as the Treasurer of the Mont Pelerin Society; he has served as Trustee and former Chairman of the Board of The Intercollegiate Studies Institute; Member of the Board of the National Chamber Foundation; a Board Member of the Institut d' Etude Politique; and member of the Board of Trustees of Regis University in Denver.

He is a longtime officer and director of three grant-making foundations: the Sarah Scaife Foundation, the Aequus Institute and the Thomas A. Roe Foundation.

Feulner is the former President of the Philadelphia Society, and past Director of the Sequoia Bank, the Council for National Policy, the Acton Institute, the International Republican Institute, the American Council in Germany, the Lehrman Institute and George Mason University.

He served as a member of the Gingrich-Mitchell Congressional U.N. Reform Task Force (2005) and on the Congressional Commission on International Financial Institutions ("Meltzer Commission") from 1999-2000. He was the Vice Chairman of the National Commission on Economic Growth and Tax Reform ("Kemp Commission") from 1995-1996. He also was Chairman of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy (1982-91),  served as the Public Member (Ambassador) of the U.S. Delegation to the United Nations Second Special Session on Disarmament in New York, and a consultant for domestic policy to President Reagan, and an adviser to several government departments and agencies. He speaks frequently both in the United States and abroad, and has been awarded 11 honorary degrees, been declared a Benefactor of the University of Edinburgh, and has received honors from the governments of Taiwan and South Korea.

But his heart belongs to Heritage – and to the thousands of colleagues and supporters he has worked with over the decades. "I can't stress it enough," Feulner said in 2002 on his 25th anniversary as president. "If you don't have the right people, you won't have the success Heritage has had over the years."

Edwin John Feulner Jr. was born Aug. 12, 1941, in Chicago to Helen Joan Feulner and Edwin J. Feulner Sr., who owned a real estate firm. After growing up in Elmhurst, Ill., Feulner attended Regis University in Denver. There he read Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater's best-selling manifesto, The Conscience of A Conservative and Russell Kirk's The Conservative Mind, which influenced his thinking and the direction of his life.

He graduated Regis with a bachelor's degree in English, and received an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business in 1964. He later attended Georgetown University and the London School of Economics, and then earned a doctorate degree at the University of Edinburgh.

Feulner began his Washington career as Public Affairs Fellow for the Center for Strategic Studies (now the Center for Strategic and International Studies) and at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, where he wrote on subjects such as trade with the Soviet Union. He later became a confidential assistant to Rep. and later Defense Secretary Melvin R. Laird (R-WI). Afterward, Feulner became Chief of Staff to Rep. Philip M. Crane (R-IL). Before joining Heritage as its President, Feulner was Executive Director of the Republican Study Committee.

Feulner is the author of seven books: Getting America Right (2006), Leadership for America (2000), Intellectual Pilgrims (1999), The March of Freedom (1998), Conservatives Stalk the House (1983), Looking Back (1981) and Trading with the Communists (1968).

He was the editor of U.S. – Japan Mutual Security: The Next Twenty Years, China – The Turning Point, and a contributor to 10 other books and numerous journals, reviews and magazines. Feulner also was publisher of Heritage's Policy Review magazine from 1977 until 2001, when Heritage transferred the publication to the Hoover Institution. He was the co-founder and Chairman of the Web site Townhall.com, which was established to coordinate online activities of dozens of conservative organizations and columnists.

Feulner also pens a weekly column that appears regularly in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and dozens more newspapers and Web sites across the country.

He and his wife, Linda, have two grown children, Edwin J. Feulner III and Emily V. Lown, and three grandchildren. They live in Alexandria, Va.

Videos
Books
The American Spirit: Celebrating the Virtues and Values that Make Us Great

The American Spirit: Celebrating the Virtues and Values that Make Us Great

Getting America Right: The True Conservative Values Our Nation Needs Today

Getting America Right: The True Conservative Values Our Nation Needs Today

The March of Freedom: Modern Classics in Conservative Thought

The March of Freedom: Modern Classics in Conservative Thought

Leadership for America: The Principles of Conservatism

Leadership for America: The Principles of Conservatism

Intellectual pilgrims: The fiftieth anniversary of the Mont Pelerin Society

Intellectual pilgrims: The fiftieth anniversary of the Mont Pelerin Society

FAQs
  • How do I book Edwin Feulner to speak at my event?

    Our experienced booking agents have successfully helped clients around the world secure speakers like Edwin Feulner for speaking engagements, personal appearances, product endorsements, or corporate entertainment since 2002. Click the Check Availability button above and complete the form on this page to check availability for Edwin Feulner, or call our office at 1.800.698.2536 to discuss your upcoming event. One of our experienced agents will be happy to help you get speaking fee information and check availability for Edwin Feulner or any other speaker of your choice.
  • What are the speaker fees for Edwin Feulner

    Speaking fees for Edwin Feulner, or any other speakers and celebrities, are determined based on a number of factors and may change without notice. The estimated fees to book Edwin Feulner are available upon request for live events and available upon request for virtual events. For the most current speaking fee to hire Edwin Feulner, click the Check Availability button above and complete the form on this page, or call our office at 1.800.698.2536 to speak directly with an experienced booking agent.
  • What topics does Edwin Feulner speak about?

    Edwin Feulner is a keynote speaker and industry expert whose speaking topics include Conservative Speakers.
  • Where does Edwin Feulner travel from?

    Edwin Feulner generally travels from Virginia, USA, but can be booked for private corporate events, personal appearances, keynote speeches, or other performances. For more details, please contact an AAE Booking agent.
  • Who is Edwin Feulner’s agent?

    AAE Speakers Bureau has successfully booked keynote speakers like Edwin Feulner for clients worldwide since 2002. As a full-service speaker booking agency, we have access to virtually any speaker or celebrity in the world. Our agents are happy and able to submit an offer to the speaker or celebrity of your choice, letting you benefit from our reputation and long-standing relationships in the industry. Please click the Check Availability button above and complete the form on this page including the details of your event, or call our office at 1.800.698.2536, and one of our agents will assist you to book Edwin Feulner for your next private or corporate function.
  • What is a full-service speaker booking agency?

    AAE Speakers Bureau is a full-service speaker booking agency, meaning we can completely manage the speaker’s or celebrity’s engagement with your organization from the time of booking your speaker through the event’s completion. We provide all of the services you need to host Edwin Feulner or any other speaker of your choice, including offer negotiation, contractual assistance, accounting and billing, and event speaker travel and logistics services. When you book a speaker with us, we manage the process of hosting a speaker for you as an extension of your team. Our goal is to give our clients peace of mind and a best-in-class service experience when booking a speaker with us.
  • Why is AAE Speakers Bureau different from other booking agencies?

    If you’re looking for the best, unbiased speaker recommendations, paired with a top-notch customer service experience, you’re in the right place. At AAE Speakers Bureau, we exclusively represent the interests of our clients - professional organizations, companies, universities, and associations. We intentionally do not represent the speakers we feature or book. That is so we can present our clients with the broadest and best performing set of speaker options in the market today, and we can make these recommendations without any obligation to promote a specific speaker over another. This is why when our agents suggest a speaker for your event, you can be assured that they are of the highest quality with a history of proven success with our other clients.
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All American Entertainment (AAE) exclusively represents the interests of talent buyers, and does not claim to be the agency or management for any speaker or artist on this site. AAE is a talent booking agency for paid events only. We do not handle requests for donation of time or media requests for interviews, and cannot provide celebrity contact information.

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President of The Heritage Foundation

Travels From:
Virginia, USA
Speaking Fee:
Categories:

Edwin Feulner Biography

Edwin J. Feulner's leadership as President of The Heritage Foundation has transformed the think tank from a small policy shop into America's powerhouse of conservative ideas.

Under Feulner, Heritage's presence in Washington grew from a nine-member staff working out of a rented office on Capitol Hill in 1977 to a 220-person organization occupying two office buildings near the U.S. Capitol today.

"This has been a conscious goal of The Heritage Foundation—to be a permanent Washington presence," Feulner wrote in the introduction to one of his books, The March of Freedom. "We have set out to make conservative ideas not just respectable but mainstream. To set the terms of national policy debate. To offer not a lament for a lost America, but positive, practical, free market alternatives to the failed liberal policies of the old order."

Feulner's work in the conservative movement throughout his life earned him praise from a range of individuals including Heritage donors and U.S. Presidents.

"By building an organization dedicated to ideas and their consequences, he has helped to shape the policy of our Government. His has been a voice of reason and values in service to his country and the cause of freedom around the world," read the citation of the Presidential Citizens Medal, given to Feulner on Jan. 18, 1989, by President Ronald Reagan.

Feulner's leadership was recognized twice in 2007. First, GQ magazine named him one of "Washington's 50 most powerful" as voted by the city's "top think tankers, congressional aides and political journalists."  And in November that year, the London Telegraph named him one of the 100 most influential conservatives in America. 

Feulner first joined The Heritage Foundation as a founding Trustee in 1973. He later became President in 1977, Heritage's fourth in four years. After accepting the job, Feulner was determined to chart a new course for the struggling think tank.

He did not want to lead a group of academics that would write studies, place them on a shelf and hope someone important would read them. Instead, Feulner decided that Heritage would operate like a business that expected progress from its analysts and results from their policy studies. Heritage would achieve these results by creating timely, concise studies and aggressively marketing them to Congress, policymakers and the media.

This "briefcase test" concept became a model for other think tanks to follow. In fact, Heritage's success has led many liberals to try to create a "liberal Heritage Foundation" to counter the think tank's influence. "[Conservatives] worked on it for 30 years and they've got it," former President Bill Clinton complained in a 2003 appearance on NBC's Today show. "They've got everything from The Heritage Foundation, the sympathetic newspapers, to sympathetic cable programs ?"

This didn't happen by accident. Feulner works tirelessly. He travels more than 150,000 miles a year, crisscrossing the United States and the globe to meet with leaders and help spread the ideals of individual liberty, economic freedom, rule of law and family values.

"Although his ways are entirely unassuming, one pauses ? to wonder how Ed Feulner manages as he does," wrote National Review founder William F. Buckley Jr. in an introduction to The Power of Ideas, a 1997 book on Heritage's history. "It helps that he disposes of the requisite biological and temperamental attributes—the capacity to go many hours without sleep, to travel endlessly attending to caseloads of work, to endure a day of meetings that begin at breakfast and end at midnight."

Feulner's schedule is often full because of the many hats he has worn over the years: He is the former President and currently serves as the Treasurer of the Mont Pelerin Society; he has served as Trustee and former Chairman of the Board of The Intercollegiate Studies Institute; Member of the Board of the National Chamber Foundation; a Board Member of the Institut d' Etude Politique; and member of the Board of Trustees of Regis University in Denver.

He is a longtime officer and director of three grant-making foundations: the Sarah Scaife Foundation, the Aequus Institute and the Thomas A. Roe Foundation.

Feulner is the former President of the Philadelphia Society, and past Director of the Sequoia Bank, the Council for National Policy, the Acton Institute, the International Republican Institute, the American Council in Germany, the Lehrman Institute and George Mason University.

He served as a member of the Gingrich-Mitchell Congressional U.N. Reform Task Force (2005) and on the Congressional Commission on International Financial Institutions ("Meltzer Commission") from 1999-2000. He was the Vice Chairman of the National Commission on Economic Growth and Tax Reform ("Kemp Commission") from 1995-1996. He also was Chairman of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy (1982-91),  served as the Public Member (Ambassador) of the U.S. Delegation to the United Nations Second Special Session on Disarmament in New York, and a consultant for domestic policy to President Reagan, and an adviser to several government departments and agencies. He speaks frequently both in the United States and abroad, and has been awarded 11 honorary degrees, been declared a Benefactor of the University of Edinburgh, and has received honors from the governments of Taiwan and South Korea.

But his heart belongs to Heritage – and to the thousands of colleagues and supporters he has worked with over the decades. "I can't stress it enough," Feulner said in 2002 on his 25th anniversary as president. "If you don't have the right people, you won't have the success Heritage has had over the years."

Edwin John Feulner Jr. was born Aug. 12, 1941, in Chicago to Helen Joan Feulner and Edwin J. Feulner Sr., who owned a real estate firm. After growing up in Elmhurst, Ill., Feulner attended Regis University in Denver. There he read Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater's best-selling manifesto, The Conscience of A Conservative and Russell Kirk's The Conservative Mind, which influenced his thinking and the direction of his life.

He graduated Regis with a bachelor's degree in English, and received an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business in 1964. He later attended Georgetown University and the London School of Economics, and then earned a doctorate degree at the University of Edinburgh.

Feulner began his Washington career as Public Affairs Fellow for the Center for Strategic Studies (now the Center for Strategic and International Studies) and at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, where he wrote on subjects such as trade with the Soviet Union. He later became a confidential assistant to Rep. and later Defense Secretary Melvin R. Laird (R-WI). Afterward, Feulner became Chief of Staff to Rep. Philip M. Crane (R-IL). Before joining Heritage as its President, Feulner was Executive Director of the Republican Study Committee.

Feulner is the author of seven books: Getting America Right (2006), Leadership for America (2000), Intellectual Pilgrims (1999), The March of Freedom (1998), Conservatives Stalk the House (1983), Looking Back (1981) and Trading with the Communists (1968).

He was the editor of U.S. – Japan Mutual Security: The Next Twenty Years, China – The Turning Point, and a contributor to 10 other books and numerous journals, reviews and magazines. Feulner also was publisher of Heritage's Policy Review magazine from 1977 until 2001, when Heritage transferred the publication to the Hoover Institution. He was the co-founder and Chairman of the Web site Townhall.com, which was established to coordinate online activities of dozens of conservative organizations and columnists.

Feulner also pens a weekly column that appears regularly in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and dozens more newspapers and Web sites across the country.

He and his wife, Linda, have two grown children, Edwin J. Feulner III and Emily V. Lown, and three grandchildren. They live in Alexandria, Va.

Edwin Feulner Videos

  • Edwin J. Feulner

Edwin Feulner Books

FAQs on booking Edwin Feulner

  • How do I book Edwin Feulner to speak at my event?

    Our experienced booking agents have successfully helped clients around the world secure speakers like Edwin Feulner for speaking engagements, personal appearances, product endorsements, or corporate entertainment since 2002. Click the Check Availability button above and complete the form on this page to check availability for Edwin Feulner, or call our office at 1.800.698.2536 to discuss your upcoming event. One of our experienced agents will be happy to help you get speaking fee information and check availability for Edwin Feulner or any other speaker of your choice.
  • What are the speaker fees for Edwin Feulner

    Speaking fees for Edwin Feulner, or any other speakers and celebrities, are determined based on a number of factors and may change without notice. The estimated fees to book Edwin Feulner are available upon request for live events and available upon request for virtual events. For the most current speaking fee to hire Edwin Feulner, click the Check Availability button above and complete the form on this page, or call our office at 1.800.698.2536 to speak directly with an experienced booking agent.
  • What topics does Edwin Feulner speak about?

    Edwin Feulner is a keynote speaker and industry expert whose speaking topics include Conservative Speakers.
  • Where does Edwin Feulner travel from?

    Edwin Feulner generally travels from Virginia, USA, but can be booked for private corporate events, personal appearances, keynote speeches, or other performances. For more details, please contact an AAE Booking agent.
  • Who is Edwin Feulner’s agent?

    AAE Speakers Bureau has successfully booked keynote speakers like Edwin Feulner for clients worldwide since 2002. As a full-service speaker booking agency, we have access to virtually any speaker or celebrity in the world. Our agents are happy and able to submit an offer to the speaker or celebrity of your choice, letting you benefit from our reputation and long-standing relationships in the industry. Please click the Check Availability button above and complete the form on this page including the details of your event, or call our office at 1.800.698.2536, and one of our agents will assist you to book Edwin Feulner for your next private or corporate function.
  • What is a full-service speaker booking agency?

    AAE Speakers Bureau is a full-service speaker booking agency, meaning we can completely manage the speaker’s or celebrity’s engagement with your organization from the time of booking your speaker through the event’s completion. We provide all of the services you need to host Edwin Feulner or any other speaker of your choice, including offer negotiation, contractual assistance, accounting and billing, and event speaker travel and logistics services. When you book a speaker with us, we manage the process of hosting a speaker for you as an extension of your team. Our goal is to give our clients peace of mind and a best-in-class service experience when booking a speaker with us.
  • Why is AAE Speakers Bureau different from other booking agencies?

    If you’re looking for the best, unbiased speaker recommendations, paired with a top-notch customer service experience, you’re in the right place. At AAE Speakers Bureau, we exclusively represent the interests of our clients - professional organizations, companies, universities, and associations. We intentionally do not represent the speakers we feature or book. That is so we can present our clients with the broadest and best performing set of speaker options in the market today, and we can make these recommendations without any obligation to promote a specific speaker over another. This is why when our agents suggest a speaker for your event, you can be assured that they are of the highest quality with a history of proven success with our other clients.

Edwin Feulner is a keynote speaker and industry expert who speaks on a wide range of topics . The estimated speaking fee range to book Edwin Feulner for your event is available upon request. Edwin Feulner generally travels from VA, USA and can be booked for (private) corporate events, personal appearances, keynote speeches, or other performances. Similar motivational celebrity speakers are Genevieve Wood, Hans Von Spakovsky, Matthew Spalding, James C. Miller III and Terry M. Moe. Contact All American Speakers for ratings, reviews, videos and information on scheduling Edwin Feulner for an upcoming live or virtual event.

Edwin Feulner Speaker Videos

  • Edwin J. Feulner

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Speakers Similar to Edwin Feulner

This website is a resource for event professionals and strives to provide the most comprehensive catalog of thought leaders and industry experts to consider for speaking engagements. A listing or profile on this website does not imply an agency affiliation or endorsement by the talent.

All American Entertainment (AAE) exclusively represents the interests of talent buyers, and does not claim to be the agency or management for any speaker or artist on this site. AAE is a talent booking agency for paid events only. We do not handle requests for donation of time or media requests for interviews, and cannot provide celebrity contact information.

If you are the talent and wish to request a profile update or removal from our online directory, please submit a profile request form.

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