Craig Kennedy

Craig Kennedy "has been president of the German Marshall Fund since 1995. Under Mr. Kennedy’s leadership, GMF has focused its activities on bridging U.S.–European differences on foreign policy, economics, immigration and the environment. An aspect of that strategy includes supporting over twenty American and European policy research institutions that are actively involved in shaping transatlantic cooperation. Mr. Kennedy has also expanded GMF’s programs in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. A major accomplishment of that effort has been the launch in 2003 of the Balkan Trust for Democracy, a $27 million grantmaking initiative to strengthen civil society and democracy, in partnership with the U.S., Dutch, Swedish and Greek governments, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Expanding GMF’s capacities as a public policy institution has been another of Mr. Kennedy’s major achievements. Toward this effort, he has provided GMF with a strong infrastructure throughout Europe, opening new offices in Paris, Bratislava, Brussels, Belgrade, and Ankara to complement the work being done in Washington and Berlin. Another key program, the Transatlantic Fellows program, was begun under Mr. Kennedy’s direction and provides outstanding journalists, policy analysts, and academics an opportunity to pursue their research and writing interests in one of GMF’s offices. He has also supported several substantial new projects which strengthen the organization’s public policy efforts. Among them are Transatlantic Trends — an annual survey of American and European public opinion — and the Trade and Poverty Forum — an international effort to ensure that the United States and Europe work together with other industrialized and developing countries to address poverty in the developing world through the world trading system.

"Mr. Kennedy began his career in 1980 as a program officer at the Joyce Foundation in Chicago. From 1983 to 1986, he was vice president of programs for Joyce. As president of the Joyce Foundation from 1986 to 1992, Mr. Kennedy built the Foundation’s environmental program and launched a new program on U.S. immigration policy. Mr. Kennedy left the Joyce Foundation to work for Richard J. Dennis, a Chicago investor and philanthropist. During this same period, Mr. Kennedy created a consulting firm working with nonprofit and public sector clients. Mr. Kennedy serves on the Board of the nonprofit Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, the Rocky Mountain Institute, the European Foundation Center, and as an independent trustee of the Van Kampen mutual funds."

• Signatory of 2005 Project for the New American Century letter
• Vice President (2003), Environmental Resources Trust
• Trustee, Thomas B. Fordham Foundation
• Advisory Council, European Policy Centre