December 2004/January 2005
Vol. X, No. 4
Harriet Hentges Resigns
Harriet Hentges |
Executive Vice President Harriet Hentges resigned in January after ten years at the Institute. Among her many achievements, Hentges initiated and directed the Institute’s pathbreaking work in post-conflict stabilization in the Balkans and Iraq and restructured the Institute’s financial management system to position it for further growth. She says her tenure was at once an “intellectual feast” with gratifying efforts in zones of conflict and a grappling with the myriad and “unsexy” details involved in managing a complex, ever-evolving, growing institution. All aspects of the job gave her personal and professional enjoyment: “It’s satisfying to look back at many of the things that have taken place at the Institute and realize that I’ve been fortunate to have had a hand in creating them,” she says. But the greatest pleasure of the job has been the people with whom she’s had an opportunity to work: “It’s a wonderful group of people—hard-headed, clear-thinking people who are serious but don’t take themselves too seriously.”
Richard Solomon, president of the Institute, praised Hentges for her many years of extraordinary service: “She’s given this Institute the benefit of her experience, her wisdom, and her example, and we are all better off for it,” he said at a farewell party held in her honor. Former and current Institute board chairmen Chester Crocker and J. Robinson West also praised Hentges’ dedication and personality.
Hentges came to the Institute after an unusually varied career in profit and nonprofit organizations. She was the chief operating officer for the League of Women Voters—and as such organized of the Reagan-Carter-Anderson debates—but thereafter held positions in investment banking and financial services. She holds a doctorate in international economics from Johns Hopkins, but began her career as a nun in the order of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet.
She arrived at the Institute at an opportune moment. The Cold War had ended five years earlier, and the Institute was developing a solid reputation in the research, analytic, and educational spheres. “We were sitting on a wealth of lessons learned on what makes peace agreements stick,” recalls Hentges. “When the Dayton Peace Accords were signed bringing the war in the former Yugoslavia to an end, the board of directors urged us to consider how we could bring this wealth of knowledge to bear to this particular challenge. When I sent a note to staff requesting ideas on how the Institute might contribute, over half of the Institute showed up at a meeting to brainstorm and plan. It led to a fact-finding mission to Bosnia-Herzegovina and was the beginning of our ambitious work on post-conflict stabilization that led the Institute to efforts in Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.”
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