Kenneth W. Dam

Kenneth W. Dam (2001)

Kenneth W. Dam (born August 10, 1932 in Marysville , Kansas ) is an American lawyer and former politician who held several higher government offices in his career.

Kenneth Dam graduated from high school in his hometown of Marysville in 1950 . He then attended the University of Kansas until 1954 before he moved to the University of Chicago and obtained his Juris Doctor at the Law School there in 1957 . He then worked as a legal assistant ( Law Clerk ) with Charles Evans Whittaker , a Kansas Supreme Court judge, until 1958 . As a result, he was initially a lawyer in the New York law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore , until he was hired as a law lecturer at the University of Chicago in 1960. In 1980 he became the provost of this university.

During this time he also took on his first office in the civil service: From 1971 to 1973 Dam was Deputy Director at the Office of Management and Budget , responsible for national security and international affairs. He also held the post of managing director of the National Economic Council for a short period in 1973 .

On September 23, 1982, Kenneth Dam was appointed Deputy Secretary of State of the United States and thus Deputy Secretary of State George P. Shultz by US President Ronald Reagan . He held this office until June 15, 1985; then followed by John C. Whitehead . He then became vice president of legal affairs at IBM and remained so until 1992. That year he assumed the post of president and CEO of United Way of America . This charity had hit the headlines due to a top-level scandal; Dam led the investigation into the affair and was instrumental in restructuring the non-profit organization . He then returned to the University of Chicago.

Dam then held other offices; from 1991 to 2001 he was Deputy Chairman of the Aspen Strategy Group and from 1999 to 2000 Chairman of the German-American Academic Council . He was also a member of the board of directors of aluminum manufacturer Alcoa from 1987 to 2001 . His work as an arbitrator in the salary negotiations between the National Basketball Association and its players from 1996 to 2001 was also widely recognized. He was also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations .

After President George W. Bush took office in 2001, Dam returned to government. He served until 2003 as Deputy Finance Minister ( Deputy Secretary of the Treasury ) and commenced during this period from 31 December 2002 to 3 February 2003, the Ministry as an interim solution after Paul O'Neill was fired as minister and John W Snow was only able to take office as his successor with a delay. Since leaving the government, Dam has focused on his legal work; He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago Law School .

Web links

• Kenneth W. Dam in nndb (English)
• Biography at the University of Chicago (English)