Back when this blog was getting started, in October of 2008, TTLA headed over to Santa Monica in order to visit with Michael D. Rich and a few of his colleagues at the RAND Corporation.
Rich is the executive vice president of RAND. That's the #2 position in the orginization, behind president and CEO James A. Thompson, at this preeminent public policy institution that's ranked among the nation's leaders in areas such as international development, health policy, public policy research programs, domestic economy policy, security and international affairs, and environmental policy.
Also as part of his job, Rich travels a half-dozen times or so a year to Qatar, where he co-chairs the Board of Overseers of the RAND-Qatar Policy Institute with Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Nasser Al-Misnad
Rand is located on the key civic block of Santa Monica, within sight of the ocean. While Rich's corner office was larger than those of various staff members, his space was far from ostentatious. Crowded with books and papers and divided into a sort of desk area and a conference table area, the room brimmed with photos and knickknacks gathered during a RAND career that began in the mid-1970s. Rich has been exec v.p. since 1993.
During the past year, TTLA has teased drips of the conversation with Rich -- here, for example. All next week, at long last, we'll present the larger interview. The Q&A has been edited for clarity. Also, to break up some of Rich's longer answers, occasional TTLA questions have been inserted into the text, after the fact. Next week's interview topic schedule:
Friday: Introduction
Monday: A Brief History of RAND
Tuesday: Is RAND a Think Tank?
Wednesday: Complex Problems & Measuring Success
Thursday: From Santa Monica to Qatar
Friday: Success, Shareholders, and Wrestlers
As a primer, here's RAND's "Sixty Ways RAND Has Made a Difference."
And also RAND-related: R.I.P. Samuel Genensky
File photo of RAND courtyard copyright and courtesy Brett Van Ort, 2008
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I look foward to reading the interview next week, especially Tuesday's. How could it NOT be think tank?