For former University President Henry Bienen, whose professional career has spanned politics, finance and education, post-Northwestern life will span the globe.
Bienen, NU’s president for 14 years, will be serving in a variety of new roles that will take him from Chicago to India and other locales, he wrote in an e-mail last week.
“I honestly don’t know what is typical for post-presidency,” he said of his decision to accept several new positions in both education and athletics.
Prior to last year’s commencement, Bienen said he had planned to take an ambassadorial post. Before taking the job at NU, Bienen served as the dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Foreign Policy at Princeton University and as a foreign-policy and security adviser.
In the end, however, Bienen said he decided not to move back into the Washington political sphere.
“Once the then-Senator Obama won the presidency, I thought about working in his administration,” he said. “I did not for various reasons, personal and professional, in the end go to Washington or abroad.”
Bienen added he had been offered other government posts that he might pursue in the future, but declined to describe the offers.
Bienen plans to increase his involvement overseas, and will work for The Hindustan Times, an Indian news organization.
The former NU president said he plans to leave for India at the end of September. The details of his post with The Hindustan Times have not yet been made public, but he said the position will draw on his experience in education. He added that he remains interested in creating an NU satellite campus in India similar to NU-Qatar.
Bienen will maintain ties with the Qatar Foundation in Doha, the organization that built Education City where NU-Qatar opened its doors last year. He will serve as a senior adviser to the chairwoman of the Qatar Foundation, her Highness Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned, said Dr. Mohammad Fathy Saoud, president of the Qatar Foundation.
Bienen’s role is crucial in building a “multiversity” system in Education City – a consortium of universities sharing one campus, including research facilities, while still maintaining administrative autonomy, Saoud said.
As a member of the president’s forum in Education City, Bienen was known for his vision, Saoud said, adding that it is not common for former university presidents to take posts in this advisory capacity.
“He shared many of our aspirations for the future of Education City,” Saoud said. “He looked to it as a unique project in the concept of globalization in education.”
Bienen will also advise the foundation on managing its new government-funded research endowment as well as prioritizing new areas of research. A recent decision by the Qatari government provides universities with 2.8 percent of the nation’s revenues, some $800 to $1,200 per year, Saoud said.
“I want Education City to succeed and be a model for future educational evolutions in the Middle East and beyond,” Bienen said. “I am personally invested in the enterprise.”
Bienen was also recently appointed vice chairman of Rasmussen College, Inc. The pre-professional college is based in Chicago, with 16 campuses across the country as well as online graduate programs.
Robert King, chairman of the college’s board of directors, said Bienen’s five years on the board of directors of Rasmussen, as well as his “eclectic” experience in both the financial and educational sectors, made him an ideal candidate for the post.
Bienen will also act as chairman of the college’s academic excellence committee, which is responsible for curricular oversight of all Rasmussen’s schools, King said.
On August 26, the United Football League announced Bienen as the chairman of its executive board. Bienen said he had already attended several United Football League board meetings as of the end of August. Representatives of the league could not be reached for comment.
And there is a chance Bienen will return to work in the banking sector as well, he said. He served on the board of Bear Stearns before the firm’s collapse in 2008.
“Right now I’m feeling that my dance card is very full,” Bienen said.
