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Person

Stephen Heintz

Nationality:

American
Occupation:

President, Rockefeller Brothers Fund

Co-Founder, Demos

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Stephen Heintz is the long-time president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) as well as the co-founder and ex-president of Demos. Heintz played key roles in numerous high-profile diplomatic affairs through RBF, including the Obama administration’s Iran Nuclear Deal, the independence of Kosovo, and the Paris Climate Accords. 1 2 3 4

Heintz’s tenure at RBF has been criticized for supporting pro-boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace, which resulted in the resignation of a board member. Heintz defended RBF’s conduct by claiming to support many avenues to a peaceful resolution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict but also not officially endorsing the BDS movement. 3 3

Early Life and Education

Stephen Heintz described his upbringing as being heavily influenced by “the tumult of the civil rights movement and then later the anti-Vietnam War movement.” His father was a businessman and Republican while his mother was a New Deal Democrat. 5

Heintz graduated from Yale University in 1974 with a degree in American studies. Heintz was an acquaintance of future President Bill Clinton who attended Yale Law School when Heintz was an undergraduate. The two interacted at political events at school. They later briefly worked together on a mayoral campaign in New Haven, Connecticut and on the 1972 presidential campaign of then-U.S. Senator George McGovern (D-SD). 5

Career

Connecticut State Government

After graduating from Yale University, Stephen Heintz’s first job was as an administrative assistant and then chief-of-staff to Connecticut’s then-state Senate majority leader Joe Lieberman (D), whom Heintz has described as a mentor. In 1976, Heintz worked on Gloria Schaffer’s (D) unsuccessful U.S. Senate run. From 1983 to 1990, Heintz worked as commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Income Maintenance and Department of Economic Development. 5

Through these roles, Heintz concluded that the American welfare system was fundamentally broken since it provided inadequate support to troubled families. He implemented reforms designed to support impoverished families in getting jobs to improve their long-term well-being. Heintz was later selected to help design the U.S. Family Support Act of 1988, one of the first national welfare reform bills. While working on the bill, Heintz briefly reconnected with then-Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton (D). Heintz would prove critical of President Clinton’s 1996 welfare reform bills which Heintz considered to be an excessively extreme version of his own welfare reform policies. 5

EastWest Institute

In 1990, Heintz left the government sector to become a director of the Prague office of the EastWest Institute, a think tank focused on resolving international disputes. Heintz later became the institute’s executive vice president and chief operating officer. Heintz said that he made the career transition because he was feeling “a little burned out” and “cynical” after fifteen years in state government. He believed that working in Central and Eastern Europe during the final years of the Soviet Union would reinvigorate his spirit. In 1990, Heintz was an international observer in Czechoslovakia’s first democratic elections since World War II. 6 1

While working in Europe, Heintz developed relationships with numerous major left-leaning American foundations, including the Ford Foundation, the Charles Stweart Mott Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and his future employer, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. 5

In 2012, more than a decade after leaving the EastWest Institute, Heintz was granted the Officer’s Cross – Order of Merit by the Polish President for his work in developing Poland’s civil society. 5 1

Demos

In 2000, Heintz co-founded Demos with David Callahan, a fellow at the Century Foundation; Charles Halpern, president of the Nathan Cummings Foundation; Rob Fersh, now the president of Convergence Center for Policy Resolution; Sara Horowitz, the founder of Working Today and the Freelancers Union; Arnie Miller of the executive search firm Isaacson Miller; former U.S. Representative David Skaggs (D-CO); and Clinton administration U.S. Department of State official Linda Tarr-Whelan. In March 2000, Heintz became the organization’s first president. 6 7

In 2001, Heintz left Demos to become the CEO of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. 1

Rockefeller Brothers Fund

In 2002, Heintz led the RBF’s joint project with the United Nations Association of the U.S.A. to negotiate with Iran to formulate what would evolve into the Obama administration’s Iran nuclear deal. 1

In 2007, Heintz organized a meeting at the RBF’s Pocantico Center between numerous conflicting factions within the region of Kosovo. The meeting resulted in the Pocantico Declaration which facilitated Kosovo’s independence from Serbia the following year. 2 3

Heintz led RBF to be involved in the United Nations Framework on Climate Change which produced the Paris Climate Accords. 4

In 2014, Heintz led the RBF’s policy to divest its endowment from conventional energy production. The decision drew international attention as RBF was one of the first major nonprofit foundations to divest, and because RBF was built on the fortune of 19th century oil baron John D. Rockefeller. 1 4

Heintz is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. 1

Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Controversy

In May 2017, Tablet Magazine published a story claiming that the Rockefeller Brothers Fund under Stephen Heintz had become one of the largest institutional supporters of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. Tablet cited RBF’s support for pro-BDS groups, such as Jewish Voice for Peace and the American Friends Service Committee, which started after a trip by RBF’s board to Israel and the Palestinian territories in 2014. Tablet estimates that RBF’s support for pro-BDS groups amounts to $880,000. According to Tablet, Heintz said of Israel “Given that the occupation has continued for 50 years and there have been numerous failed efforts to negotiate peace, we are looking for ways to disrupt this status quo.” 3

Tablet reported that members of the Rockefeller family and representatives of major Jewish nonprofits such as the Jewish Funders Network had expressed concerns over RBF’s support for pro-BDS groups to Heintz. Former Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, who has served under administrations of both major political parties, resigned from RBF’s board in protest of the funding of pro-BDS groups. 3

In response to Tablet’s questioning, Heintz clarified that RBF didn’t necessarily support all the activities of its grantees: “We’re not funding those groups specifically for their work on BDS, and BDS or whatever forms of economic activism they support are not the only things that they do.” 8

In June 2017, Tablet published a follow-up story reporting on Heintz’s response to the original story in the form of an email sent to RBF staff. Heintz stated that the funding of pro-BDS groups was intended to support “ending the 50-year long occupation in order to bring justice, dignity, and security to all Israelis and Palestinians.” Heintz accused Tablet of smearing RBF in “guilt by association” by implying that RBF supported all activities conducted by its pro-BDS grantees even though most of RBF’s funding officially went toward “general support.” Heintz accused Tablet of representing “very conservative forces that support the policies of Israel’s coalition government.” 9

References

  1. “Stephen Heintz.” Robert Bosch Academy. Accessed April 24, 2024. https://www.robertboschacademy.de/en/fellow/stephen-heintz.
  2. Phillips, David L. “Liberating Kosovo : coercive diplomacy and U.S. intervention.” World Cat. Accessed April 24, 2024. https://search.worldcat.org/title/897079767.
  3. Rosen, Armin. “The Rockefeller Brothers Fund and BDS.” May 24, 2017. Accessed April 24, 2024. https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/rockefeller-brothers-fund-gets-behind-bds.
  4. Keidan, Charles. “Interview with Stephen Heintz, CEO of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.” Alliance Magazine. May 3, 2016. Accessed April 24, 2024. https://www.alliancemagazine.org/interview/interview-stephen-heintz/.
  5. Nauffts, Mitch. “Stephen B. Heintz: A Conversation With the President of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.” Candid. November 5, 2000. Accessed April 24, 2024. https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/features/newsmakers/stephen-b.-heintz-a-conversation-with-the-president-of-the-rockefeller-brothers-fund.
  6. [1] Nauffts, Mitch. “Stephen B. Heintz: A Conversation With the President of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.” Candid. November 5, 2000. Accessed April 24, 2024. https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/features/newsmakers/stephen-b.-heintz-a-conversation-with-the-president-of-the-rockefeller-brothers-fund.
  7. Lucas, Barbara Joanna. “Unabashed Radicals: The mission of Demos, Elizabeth Warren’s favorite left-wing group.” Capital Research Center. July 3, 2014. Accessed April 24, 2024. https://capitalresearch.org/article/ot/.
  8. [1] Rosen, Armin. “The Rockefeller Brothers Fund and BDS.” May 24, 2017. Accessed April 24, 2024. https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/rockefeller-brothers-fund-gets-behind-bds.
  9. [1] Rosen, Armin. “Rockefeller Brothers Fund President Explains BDS to His Trustees: It’s About “Justice, Dignity, and Security”.” Tablet. June 28, 2017. Accessed April 24, 2024. https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/rockefeller-brothers-fund-president-explains-bds-to-his-trustees-its-about-justice-dignity-and-security.
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