American Enterprise Institute head Arthur Brooks said Wednesday he plans to step down in the summer of 2019 after more than ten years leading the conservative think tank.
“Succession plans work best precisely when an organization is at maximum strength,” Brooks wrote in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal. “I believe social enterprises generally thrive best when chief executives don’t stay much longer than a decade, because it’s important to refresh the organizational vision periodically and avoid becoming uniquely associated with one person.”
Before taking the helm of AEI, which is generally viewed as less political than some of its think tank counterparts, in 2009, Brooks taught economics and social entrepreneurship at Syracuse University. He also spent 12 years as a classical musician in the United States and Spain.
Tully Friedman and Daniel D’Aniello, co-chairs of AEI’s board of trustees, said a search committee will be formed in the coming weeks to find a successor.
Here is AEI's press release on the Brooks announcement. Here is what the Washington Examiner has to say.
Here is what Jonah Goldberg has to say about "the coming end of the Arthur Brooks era."
There has been major turnover of leadership at a number of top US think tanks the past year, including at the Brookings Institution and Heritage Foundation.
