Michael D. Rich
Encyclopedia
Michael Rich is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the RAND Corporation, the institution's highest-ranking position, which he has held since November 2011. Mr. Rich became the fifth president and CEO of the Santa Monica, Calif.,-based research institution, succeeding James A. Thomson, who led RAND since 1989. His father, Ben Rich
Ben Rich
Benjamin Robert Rich was the second director of Lockheed's Skunk Works from 1975 to 1991, succeeding its founder, Kelly Johnson. Regarded as the "father of stealth," Ben Rich was responsible for leading the development of the F-117, the first production stealth aircraft...

, was a prominent aeronautical engineer with the Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin is an American global aerospace, defense, security, and advanced technology company with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, in the Washington Metropolitan Area....

 Skunk Works
Skunk works
Skunk Works is an official alias for Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Programs , formerly called Lockheed Advanced Development Projects. Skunk Works is responsible for a number of famous aircraft designs, including the U-2, the SR-71 Blackbird, the F-117 Nighthawk, and the F-22 Raptor...

, most famous for developing the F-117A Nighthawk stealth
Stealth technology
Stealth technology also termed LO technology is a sub-discipline of military tactics and passive electronic countermeasures, which cover a range of techniques used with personnel, aircraft, ships, submarines, and missiles, to make them less visible to radar, infrared, sonar and other detection...

 fighter
Fighter aircraft
A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed primarily to attack ground targets...

.

He is also co-chair of the Board of Overseers of the RAND-Qatar Policy Institute; and chair of the Pardee RAND Graduate School
Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School
The Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School is a private, higher-education institution that offers doctoral studies in policy analysis and practical experience working on RAND research projects to solve current public policy problems. Its campus is co-located with the RAND Corporation, a...

 Admissions Committee.

History at RAND

Over the course of his career as a researcher, member of RAND's research leadership and the institution's second-ranking officer, Mr. Rich is credited with building and leading numerous programs and initiatives. With Mr. Thomson, Mr. Rich led the development and adoption of a new institutional strategy in 1995 that emphasized diversification and growth, and made sweeping changes to RAND's structure and operations. That plan led to growth across the institution, but particularly within its domestic research programs and international operations.

Mr. Rich took an active hand in establishing and growing RAND's thriving research and analysis practice in the Middle East, including the RAND Qatar Policy Institute, whose board of overseers he cochairs. Mr. Rich also guided the successful spin-off of the Council for Aid to Education, the New York-based nonprofit that supports U.S. higher education institutions with research on student outcomes and giving to education, and which was once a division of RAND.

Mr. Rich led the effort to gain land use entitlements from the city of Santa Monica and the California Coastal Commission to build the RAND headquarters campus, which opened in 2005 and today houses 1,000 RAND associates. The project earned Gold LEED Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council and the Urban Land Institute's award for excellence.

Mr. Rich is also active within the Pardee RAND Graduate School, the world's largest Ph.D. program in policy analysis, located at RAND's Santa Monica campus. Mr. Rich has taught and advised students as a member of the faculty, and chaired dissertation, qualifying exam and admissions committees.

Mr. Rich is a native of Los Angeles who joined RAND as a summer associate and then as a member of the institution's research team upon his graduation from the School of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Mr. Rich was formerly Vice President in charge of RAND's National Security Research Division and Director of the National Defense Research Institute, the federally funded research and development center that provides research and policy analysis to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the defense agencies, the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Joint Chiefs of Staff
The Joint Chiefs of Staff is a body of senior uniformed leaders in the United States Department of Defense who advise the Secretary of Defense, the Homeland Security Council, the National Security Council and the President on military matters...

, and the Department of State. He was also responsible for national security studies sponsored at RAND by the intelligence community
Intelligence community
Intelligence community may refer to* Bangladeshi intelligence community* Croatian intelligence community * Israeli intelligence community* Italian intelligence community, see SISMI...

, Department of Energy
United States Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material...

, and private foundations. He has published numerous classified
Classified information
Classified information is sensitive information to which access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of persons. A formal security clearance is required to handle classified documents or access classified data. The clearance process requires a satisfactory background investigation...

 and unclassified RAND reports, including studies of the B-2
B-2 Spirit
The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit is an American heavy bomber with low observable stealth technology designed to penetrate dense anti-aircraft defenses and deploy both conventional and nuclear weapons. The bomber has a crew of two and can drop up to eighty -class JDAM GPS-guided bombs, or sixteen ...

 acquisition strategy, trends in weapons acquisition, multinational coproduction of aerospace systems, various readiness issues, and other topics related to national defense.

Before becoming Vice President, he served at RAND as Deputy Vice President, Director of the Defense Resource Management Program, and Associate Head of the Political Science Department.

Affiliations

Mr. Rich is also a member of the California Bar, the Council on Foreign Relations
Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...

, and several other professional organizations. He is a member of the Governing Council of the International Institute for Strategic Studies
International Institute for Strategic Studies
The International Institute for Strategic Studies is a British research institute in the area of international affairs. It describes itself as "the world’s leading authority on political-military conflict"...

, London; the Board of Directors of the Council for Aid to Education (chairman 1996-2005); the Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center Board of Advisors; Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Communications Institute; the Board of Directors of WISE Senior Services; the UCLA Foundation Board of Councillors; the Blue Ribbon Committee of the WISE/Los Angeles Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program; the Advisory Board of The Everychild Foundation. He chaired the Financial Oversight Committee of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District
Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District
Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District is a school district headquartered in Santa Monica, California, United States. The district serves the cities of Santa Monica and Malibu...

 from 2000-2003.

Education

He attended Los Angeles Public Schools, graduating from William Howard Taft High School in Woodland Hills in 1970. Mr. Rich received his B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

, and his J.D.
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...

 from the University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...

.

Family

He is the son of aviation pioneer Ben Rich
Ben Rich
Benjamin Robert Rich was the second director of Lockheed's Skunk Works from 1975 to 1991, succeeding its founder, Kelly Johnson. Regarded as the "father of stealth," Ben Rich was responsible for leading the development of the F-117, the first production stealth aircraft...

and his wife Faye. Michael Rich is married to Debra Granfield, a well-known retired labor attorney. The couple has two sons.

Links

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