Richard C. Leone Announces He Will Step Down as President of The Century Foundation

Nov 10, 2010

Authors: TCF

Publisher(s): The Century Foundation

New York, N.Y., November 10, 2010—Richard C. Leone, president of The Century Foundation, announced today that he will leave his position at the helm of the progressive policy research institution in 2011. Leone, who has led the organization for twenty-one years, will remain affiliated with TCF as a senior fellow.

“I believe the time has come to set in motion a transition process leading to new leadership,” Leone announced to the Board of Trustees. “It has been a privilege for me to work with deeply committed colleagues on issues that matter—to function in an environment in which ideas and substance count. When I reflect on the past twenty-one years, my greatest satisfaction is in a deep belief that we have fought the good fight—and fought it on the merits,” he added.  

Leone will continue to head the Foundation while the Board conducts a search for the next president. “Dick Leone has been the incomparable leader of The Century Foundation for more than two decades, and it is hard to imagine the institution without him,” said Alan Brinkley, the Allan Nevins Professor of History at Columbia University, who serves as chairman of The Century Foundation Board of Trustees. “He has transformed Century into one of the most energetic and creative policy centers in the nation and has mentored some of the most successful writers, scholars, and public officials of the last twenty years.  As he moves toward a transition from president to senior fellow, we are fortunate to have his continuing presence. His achievements will continue to shape the Foundation’s future for many years.”

The late Theodore Sorensen, who served as chair of TCF’s Board of Trustees for five years, had said that Leone was “the finest, most progressive leader of The Century Foundation and its predecessor, The Twentieth Century Fund, in all my decades as a member of that distinguished Board.” Under Leone’s leadership TCF produced groundbreaking work on economic inequality, played a significant role in the fight against Social Security privatization, created the task force that led directly to the Help America Vote Act, and produced several works on refashioning intelligence after the end of the Cold War. TCF also created a commission on homeland security that was a part of the process of shaping the new federal department of that name, and whose co-chair, former New Jersey governor Tom Kean, was subsequently tapped to head the 9/11 Commission. Leone guided TCF’s leadership role in publishing work that asserted the continuing importance of legal and civil rights even amidst the tensions caused by terrorist attacks on our nation.

In addition, under Leone’s leadership, TCF also has made important contributions to the health care reform efforts and has produced cutting edge work in education policy at both the K–12 and higher education levels. The Century Foundation also became a distinctive voice in foreign policy debates, producing a series of important and sometimes prescient publications. Currently, the Foundation is supporting the work of its international task force on Afghanistan, headed by Lakhdar Brahimi and Thomas Pickering.

Leone led the Foundation through a time of transition from an organization that primarily published books by outside authors and convened national task forces, to one that could also respond more nimbly to the changing pace and approaches to national policy debates triggered by new technologies and the introduction of the twenty-four-hour news cycle. He established a fellows program to develop in-house expertise, created a distinct public affairs component of the Foundation, and opened a Washington office. He also led TCF in remaking its publications program, supplementing full-length books with shorter explanatory materials and analytical reports.

In addition, he provided leadership to the Foundation as it responded to the growth of the Internet, which fundamentally changed the way in which issues are explored and debated. TCF established, expanded, and constantly reinvented its web presence, including the creation and execution of web-based projects beginning in 1997. Under Leone’s leadership, the Foundation also created programs to help develop leadership skills for young progressives. For five years, TCF offered the Century Institute’s Sagner Fellows Program, a highly selective summer policy program for college students. The Foundation established and continues to host summer activities for more than a hundred interns working at progressive organizations in New York City.

“Dick Leone is unique because of a combination of talents,” said Richard Ravitch, the lieutenant governor of New York who was a long time officer and member of TCF’s board of Trustees. “He has business acumen, a profound understanding of American politics, and a very deep commitment to the public interest. That is why he has made such an extraordinary contribution to The Century Foundation.”

Leone formerly was chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and State Treasurer of New Jersey. He also was president of the New York Mercantile Exchange and a managing director at Dillon Read and Co., an investment-banking firm. He served as executive director of a White House Task Force on Cities. He also was chairman of the transition committees for two New Jersey governors. Leone earned a PhD from Princeton University, where he has served on the faculty. He is the co-editor of Social Security Reform: Beyond the Basics, The War on Our Freedoms: Civil Liberties in an Age of Terrorism, and Liberty Under Attack.