Edwin Meese III

Edwin Meese III currently holds the Ronald Reagan Chair in Public Policy at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based public policy research and education institution. He is also a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford, California. In addition, Meese lectures, writes and consults throughout the United States on a variety of subjects.

Meese is the author of With Reagan: The Inside Story, which was published by Regnery Gateway Publishers in June 1992.

Meese served as the 75th attorney general of the United States from February 1985 to August 1988. As the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, he reorganized the management systems of the Department of Justice, including the establishment of the Justice Command Center and the initiation of agency-wide programs for strategic planning, organization and budgeting, personnel management, and research and development. He also led international efforts to combat terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime.

From January 1981 to February 1985, Meese held the position of counselor to the president, the senior position on the White House staff. In this capacity, he functioned as the president’s chief policy adviser and had management responsibility for the administration of the cabinet, policy development, and planning and evaluation. He was also chairman pro tem of the Cabinet Council on Management and Administration. His leadership was recognized in 1983 when he received the Government Executive Award for Managerial and Administrative Excellence.