Michael D. Rich is President Emeritus at

RAND Corporation The RAND Corporation, doing business as RAND, is an American nonprofit global policy think tank, research institute, and public sector consulting firm. RAND engages in research and development (R&D) in several fields and industries. Since the ...

. Rich was the fifth president and CEO of the Santa Monica, California-based research institution, succeeding  James A. Thomson, who had led RAND from 1989 to 2011. Rich was appointed as President and CEO in November 2011 and served in that role until his retirement in 2022. Rich was succeeded by current RAND President and CEO

Jason Gaverick Matheny Jason Gaverick Matheny is an American national security expert who has been president and CEO of the RAND Corporation since July 2022. He was previously a senior appointee in the Biden administration from March 2021 to June 2022. He served as de ...

. Rich is co-author of the 2018 book '' Truth Decay: An Initial Exploration of the Diminishing Role of Facts and Analysis in American Public Life'', along with co-author Jennifer Kavanagh.

Education

Rich attended Los Angeles Public Schools, graduating from William Howard Taft High School in Woodland Hills in 1970. He received his B.A. from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, and his J.D. from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

Career

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. He was involved in establishing RAND's research and analysis practice in the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

. Before becoming RAND president and CEO, he was 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 The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) is the body of the most senior uniformed leaders within the United States Department of Defense, which advises the president of the United States, the secretary of defense, the Homeland Security Council and ...

, and the

Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs ...

. He led the effort to gain land use entitlements from the city of Santa Monica and the

California Coastal Commission The California Coastal Commission (CCC) is a state agency within the California Natural Resources Agency with quasi-judicial control of land and public access along the state's of coastline. Its mission as defined in the California Coastal Ac ...

to build the RAND headquarters campus, which opened in 2005 and today houses 1,000 RAND associates. The project earned Gold

LEED Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a Green building certification systems, green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating ...

Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council and the Urban Land Institute's award for excellence.

Family

He is the son of the late aviation pioneer Ben Rich, a prominent

aeronautical engineer Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...

with Lockheed

Skunk Works Skunk Works is an official pseudonym for Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs (ADP), formerly called Lockheed Advanced Development Projects. It is responsible for a number of aircraft designs, highly classified research and developme ...

, and his wife Faye Mayer, a fashion model. Michael Rich is married to Debra Granfield, a retired labor attorney. The couple has two sons, Matthew and William.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rich, Michael RAND Corporation people University of California, Berkeley alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people)