Edward Conard

Edward W. Conard is an American businessman, author and scholar. He is the New York Times bestselling author of The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class and Unintended Consequences: Why Everything You've Been Told About the Economy Is Wrong. Conard is a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research.[1] Previously, he was a managing director at Bain Capital, where he worked closely with former presidential candidate Mitt Romney.[2]

Edward Conard
Born
Edward Walter Conard
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater
BSE University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
  • MBA 1982 Harvard Business School
Employer
self - independent director
Spouse(s)Jill A. Davis (m. May 13, 2000)
Websitewww.edwardconard.com

Early life and education

Conard grew up in the Detroit metropolitan area[3] and graduated from the University of Michigan with a BSE in Operations Research in 1978.[1] He earned his MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School in 1982.[1][3]

Early career and Bain Capital

Prior to business school, Conard worked as an automotive engineer at Ford Motor Company. After graduating, he joined Bain & Company, the Boston-based global management-consulting firm, eventually becoming a vice president and leading the firm's industrial practice.[2]

Conard left Bain in 1990 to become a director at Wasserstein Perella & Co., a boutique investment bank. At Wassernstein, he headed the firm's Transaction Development Group.[2]

Conard was a managing director at Bain Capital, the head of Bain's New York office and the leader of its industrial practice.[4] He joined the firm in 1993 prior to the firm raising $300 million of private equity.[5] When Conard retired in 2007, Bain Capital managed $75 billion of capital and had offices in Boston, New York, San Francisco, London, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Mumbai.[5] His first acquisition was that of a pharmaceutical company for half a billion dollars. That same company later rose to more than $10 billion in value.[6]

While at Bain Capital, Conard took Waters Corporation, DDI, ChipPac, Innophos, and Sensata public and sat on their boards of directors.[7][8][9][10] He still sits on the board of Waters Corporation.[11]

Writing, speaking, and scholar career

Conard is the author of two top-ten New York Times bestsellers: Unintended Consequences: Why Everything You've Been Told About the Economy Is Wrong and The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class. He became the tenth most searched author on Google in 2012 after publishing his first book.[12] Conard joined the American Enterprise Institute as a visiting fellow in 2012.[13] His work with AEI focuses on U.S. economic policy - in particular, on the effect of taxes, government policies, and finance on risk-taking and innovation.[1]

Unintended Consequences

Conard published Unintended Consequences: Why Everything You've Been Told About the Economy Is Wrong in May 2012.[14] The book was featured on the cover of the New York Times Sunday Magazine and went on to become a New York Times top ten non-fiction bestseller.[15]

While the New York Times predicted the book might become “the most hated book of the year,”[2] leading economists such as Greg Mankiw, Andrei Shleifer, Steven Levitt, Nouriel Roubini, Tyler Cowen, and Glenn Hubbard publicly endorsed the book.[16] In contrast to the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal called the book “a full throttle defense of economic dynamism…refreshing at a time when so many take the failure of capitalism for granted.”[17] The New York Times described Unintended Consequences as “…arguing that growing income inequality shows the economy is working.” Timothy Noah, the author of The Great Divergence: America's Growing Inequality noted: “the biggest surprise, on opening Unintended Consequences, lies in discovering that this book isn't about income inequality at all.”[18] The book analyzes why the U.S. has outperformed other high-wage economies, explains the causes of the financial crisis, and makes recommendations for accelerating growth in its aftermath.[14] Conard summarizes his book in a 23-minute video for The UP Experience.[19]

Since its publication, Conard has made over 240 television appearances in which he has debated leading economists including Paul Krugman, Joe Stiglitz, Alan Krueger, Austan Goolsbee, and Jared Bernstein; journalists including Fareed Zakaria, Chris Hayes, and Andrew Ross Sorkin; and politicians such as Barney Frank, Howard Dean, and Eliot Spitzer.[20] Conard also debated Jon Stewart for 33 minutes, one of Stewart's longest interviews.[21] The video of the debate has received nearly 100,000 views. He has also written op-eds for The Wall Street Journal,[22] The Washington Post,[23] Foreign Affairs,[24] Harvard Business Review,[25] Fortune,[26] and Politico,[27] among others.

The Upside of Inequality

Conard published The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class in September 2016.[28] The book debuted at #8 on the New York Times top ten non-fiction list and reached #1 on the New York Times business book list.[29][30]

The Upside of Inequality was met with positive reviews, including former president of Harvard University and economist Larry Summers, a very tough critic on the other side of the aisle, blurbed "I profoundly disagree but respect the clarity with which he makes his case..." and called it "a very valuable contribution" that will "sharpen your thinking on critical economic issues."[31] Noted economist Tyler Cowen who wrote on Bloomberg News: "Conard’s central idea is that risk-bearing equity capital is the truly scarce asset in most economic situations, and economic analysis should adapt accordingly. He is very creative in seeing some of the implications of this view. I... found it very stimulating to ponder. It puts many of the pieces together in a new and different way."[32] Harvard economist Greg Mankiw recommended Upside and interviewed Conard on CSPAN. David Author, George Borjas, Larry Lindsey, and other prominent economists also praised it.[33] National Review said the book is a "rousing defense of conservative beliefs about how markets and incentives drive prosperity."[34]

Political activities

In March 2011, Conard made a $1 million U.S. dollar contribution to the super PAC promoting Mitt Romney's candidacy in the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election through W Spann LLC, a shell corporation that rendered him anonymous and appeared to exist for the sole purpose of contributing to Romney's campaign. In August 2011, he came forward to quell the controversy that arose.[35][36]

Personal life

Conard is married to Jill Davis, an author and former writer for the Late Show with David Letterman.[37]

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References
  1. "Edward Conard Visiting Scholar". American Enterprise Institute. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  2. Davidson, Adam (1 May 2012). "The Purpose of Spectacular Wealth, According to a Spectacularly Wealthy Guy". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  3. "Edward Conard: Economic Growth, Innovation, & Middle-Class Prosperity". Conversations with Bill Kristol.
  4. Bluey, Rob (28 June 2012). "Author Ed Conard Talks Bain Capital, Economics and Obama's Record". The Daily Signal. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  5. "Bain Capital About History". Bain Capital Private Equity official website. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  6. "Waters Corporation". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  7. "Form 10-K". SEC.gov. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  8. "Form 10-K". Innophos. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  9. "Form 10-K ChipPAC, Inc". Securities and Exchange Commission. Get Filings. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  10. "Form S-1 DDi Corp". Securities and Exchange Commission. Nasdaq.com. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  11. "Leadership - Board of Directors". Waters Corporation. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  12. Boog, Jason (19 December 2012). "Charles Duhigg Tops Google's Trending Authors List for 2012". Adweek. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  13. McDuffee, Allen (18 December 2012). "Former Bain Capital partner Edward Conard joins AEI". The Washington Post. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  14. "Unintended Consequences". Penguin. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  15. "Best Sellers - Hardcover Nonfiction - July 15, 2012". The New York Times. 15 July 2012. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  16. "Reviews". Edward Conard official website. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  17. Carney, Brian M. (13 June 2012). "Please Don't Soak the Rich". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  18. Noah, Timothy (29 May 2012). "Why Edward Conard Is Wrong About Income Inequality". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  19. "Edward Conard". The UP Experience. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  20. "All Media Appearances". Ed Conard official website. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  21. "Exclusive - Edward Conard Extended Interview Pt. 1". The Daily Show. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  22. Conard, Edward (2 August 2012). "What Obama Didn't Learn From the 1990s". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  23. Conard, Edward (30 July 2013). "We don't need more humanities majors". The Washington Post. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  24. Zakaria, Fareed; Conard, Edward (June 2013). "How to Fix America". Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  25. Conard, Edward (8 June 2012). "How to Get Our Savings on the Move Again". Harvard Business Review. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  26. Conard, Edward (11 June 2014). "Rescuing subprime borrowers won't fix the economy". Fortune. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  27. Conard, Edward (12 December 2012). "Why tax hikes fall short for cliff talks". Politico. Archived from the original on 18 April 2015. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  28. Rosen, Michael M. (21 November 2016). "In the Long Run". The Weekly Standard. Retrieved 12 February 2017.
  29. "The New York Times Best Seller List - Business". The New York Times. 9 October 2016. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
  30. "Ed Conard Official website". Ed Conard official website. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
  31. "The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class". American Enterprise Institute. 31 August 2016. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
  32. Cowen, Tyler (7 September 2016). "Maybe Supply-Side Economics Deserves a Second Look". Bloomberg. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
  33. "What the Upside of Inequality really means". MSNBC. 14 September 2016. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
  34. Brennan, Patrick (19 September 2016). "The Conservative Answer to Thomas Piketty That You've All Been Waiting For". National Review. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
  35. Seper, Jerry (August 7, 2011). "$1 million Romney donor steps forward. Denies intent to sidestep law". The Washington Times. Retrieved 2012-05-09.
  36. Hooker, Brad (September 13, 2011). "Men Linked to Corporate Donations to Pro-Romney Super PAC Have Long History of Donating to Romney". opensecrets.org. Center for Responsive Politics. Retrieved 2012-05-09.
  37. "Weddings; Jill Davis, Edward Conard". The New York Times. 14 May 2000. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
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