Alum Named To Double Fellowship

Ben W. Heineman, Jr., ’65, the senior vice president for law and public affairs at General Electric (G.E.), will assume fellowship positions at both Harvard Law School and the Kennedy School of Government this spring, the two schools announced Monday.

Heineman will become the first-ever Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Law School’s Program on the Legal Profession, and will also serve as a senior fellow at the Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

He said he will be conducting research on the global anti-corruption movement, the transforming role of the corporate general counsel, and the corporate response to terrorism. He will also advise students on career choices and teach in related areas.

Heineman will leave G.E. at the end of the calendar year and assume his new position at Harvard on Feb. 1.

David B. Wilkins, director of the Program on the Legal Profession, said that one of the goals of the program is to bridge the gap between academia and the professional world by bringing back experienced practitioners, like Heineman, to relate their experiences.

“One of Harvard’s unfortunate problems is that we do not do a very good job of addressing issues that touch on many domains,” Wilkins said. “One of the great advantages of having someone like Heineman here is that we have a chance to further the initiatives of [University President Lawrence H.] Summers and [Law School Dean Elena] Kagan, to better understand interdisciplinary subjects, in this case government, public policy, and globalization in business.”

Belfer Center Director Graham T. Allison ’62 said Heineman’s past experience fits with the pressing issues that the center focuses on.

“Ben Heineman is an extraordinary bundle of intellect, imagination, and experience. We are thrilled to have him, especially at the Belfer Center, because every one of the global problems that we examine, like new energy technology or counter-terrorism, is one in which he has touched upon in his work at G.E.,” Allison said.

From 1987 to 2003, when Heineman was G.E.’s senior vice president and general counsel, he espoused “corporate citizenship”—the idea of high performance coupled with high integrity as a necessary element of 21st-century capitalism.

Before his career at G.E., Heineman worked as a partner in two law firms, both in Washington, D.C., focusing on civil and constitutional litigation. He served as assistant secretary for planning and evaluation at the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

A former resident of Leverett House, Heineman was editorial chairman of The Crimson during his undergraduate years. After studying at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, he attended Yale Law School and later served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Associate Justice Potter Stewart. He has written books on British race relations and the American presidency as well as numerous articles.

Heineman said he wants to stay involved in legal policy issues through work at outside firms, but he added that he is excited to focus on research and teaching.

“At the ripe of age of 62, I am ready to enter a new phase in my life,” he said. “I want an opportunity to think about interesting issues and the freedom to articulate them, through articles and books, to a greater audience. I don’t think I’m going to miss that [corporate] world as much as I am going to enjoy being at Harvard.”

Allison predicted that Heineman will find academia a relaxing break from the corporate world.

“The most challenging part of having Heineman working at the Belfer Center is that he is used to a very high performance schedule. He’s already given me two pages on articles and books he proposes to write in his first year here,” Allison said. “He’s going to make all of us look like we’re slackers.”