Linda Bilmes
Co-Chair, Board of Directors
Professor Linda J. Bilmes of Harvard University is a leading expert on budgeting and public finance. She is the United States member of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Public Administration. She previously served as Assistant Secretary and Chief Financial Officer of the US Department of Commerce from 1998 to 2001 and on the US Department of Interior National Park Service Advisory Board and US Department of Labor Veterans Advisory Board, from 2010 to 2017.
Dr. Bilmes has authored numerous books, book chapters and articles including the New York Times bestseller The Three Trillion Dollar War (with Joseph E. Stiglitz), The People Factor (with W. Scott Gould), and Valuing the US National Parks: America’s Best Investment (with John Loomis). She has received many awards and honors, including the 2008 “Speaking Truth to Power” Award by the American Friends Service Committee. Her documentary on the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center won a Palme d'Or. She is a contributing author to the Brown University Costs of War project. Her research has been published in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, Boston Globe, Barron’s ,and Foreign Policy and numerous academic journals.
She serves on the Board of Directors of the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. She holds an AB and MBA from Harvard University and a DPhil from the University of Oxford.