Stephen B. Heintz

Stephen B. Heintz is president and CEO of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a private family foundation with an endowment of approximately $1.2 billion that advances social change for a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world. Heintz coined the term “acupuncture philanthropy” to describe his philanthropic approach of leveraging modest financial assets to trigger larger systemic change on critical issues. Heintz, who began his professional life in public service for the state of Connecticut, has devoted his career to strengthening democratic culture and institutions to better serve citizens. Before joining the RBF in 2001, Heintz co-founded and served as president of Dēmos, a public policy organization that works to reduce political and economic inequality and to broaden citizen engagement in American democracy. As co-chair of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences national Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship, he co-authored the report Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century (2020). On the international stage, Heintz served as executive vice president and chief operating officer for the EastWest Institute during the 1990s. Based in Prague, he helped propel civil society development, economic reform, and new international security structures in Central and Eastern Europe’s then burgeoning democracies. In 2012, Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski awarded the Officer’s Cross – Order of Merit to Heintz in recognition of his work to help build democratic institutions in Poland. Heintz is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development. He chairs the board of the Quincy Institute and serves on the boards of the International Crisis Group and the Rockefeller Archive Center. He is the recipient of the Council on Foundations 2018 Distinguished Service Award.