Kenneth W. Dam


Kenneth W. Dam served as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury from 2001 to 2004, where he specialized in international economic development. He is currently a senior fellow of the Brookings Institution and a professor emeritus and senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School.

Early life and education

Kenneth Dam graduated from Marysville High School, Marysville, Kansas in 1950, from the University of Kansas in 1954, and earned his J.D. degree from the University of Chicago law school in 1957. He then served as a law clerk to United States Supreme Court justice Charles Whittaker in 1957 and 1958. He became an associate at the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore until he joined the University of Chicago as a law professor in 1960, becoming provost in 1980.

Career

Dam held a number of government positions during various Republican administrations while on leave from the University of Chicago:
After leaving the Reagan administration in 1985, Dam became vice president for law and external relations at IBM until 1992. He served as president and CEO of the United Way of America in 1992, and helped lead an investigation of a highly publicized scandal in the leadership of that organization and reorganize its staff and governance. He then rejoined the University of Chicago law school faculty.
He has also been an arbitrator, most notably from 1996 to 2001 under the collective bargaining agreement between professional basketball players and the National Basketball Association. Dam has served on the board of a number of public policy institutions, including the Council on Foreign Relations, the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, and the Brookings Institution. He was co-chairman of the Aspen Strategy Group from 1991 to 2001 and was, during 1999 and 2000, chairman of the German-American Academic Council. From 1987 to 2001 he was a member of the board of Alcoa. He is a former member of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group. He first participated in their annual conference in 1983 when he was Under Deputy Secretary of State. He would miss only one conference between 1983 and 1997 and participate again in 2001 and 2002.

Publications