Linda Bilmes

Linda J. Bilmes (born 1960) is the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Senior Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard University. She is a full-time faculty member at the Harvard Kennedy School where she teaches public policy, budgeting and public finance.

She is a leading national expert on financial, budgeting, veterans and civil service issues. Bilmes is widely credited with drawing attention to the cost of the Iraq War and to the long-term cost of caring for returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. She has received numerous awards and distinctions from peace groups and veterans organizations. She is the recipient of the 2008 “Speaking Truth to Power” Award from the American Friends Service Committee. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. She serves on the Board of Directors for Economists for Peace and Security and the Institute for Veterans and Military Families. She is a contributor to the Eisenhower Study Group/Brown University cost of war study. She has testified to the US Congress on numerous occasions regarding the costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and the long-term consequences for providing veterans care. She co-authored the landmark centennial study of the economic value of the US National Parks System, which established a baseline value of $92 billion for the parks and programs.

Bilmes is a faculty affiliate of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, the Taubman Center for State and Local Government, the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston. At Harvard, Professor Bilmes founded and directs the Greater Boston Applied Field Lab, an advanced program in which teams of students work directly in local communities on budgeting and financial challenges. She leads budgeting workshops and training sessions for newly-elected Mayors and Members of Congress run by the Harvard Institute of Politics. Bilmes also teaches and conducts research at the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University, where she is a visiting fellow at Brasenose College.

Early life and education

Bilmes was raised in San Mateo, California. She attended Aragon High School. During her senior year, she worked as an intern for Governor Jerry Brown during his first term as Governor of California. Bilmes holds an A.B. in government from Harvard University and an M.B.A from Harvard Business School. After earning a graduate business degree, she worked as a pollster and political consultant and then as a management consultant with Bain & Company until 1987. From 1988 to 1996, she worked at strategic management consulting company The Boston Consulting Group based in London, Madrid and Moscow. As a principal at The Boston Consulting Group, Bilmes helped build the company's United Kingdom healthcare practice, was appointed as one of 10 Western advisors to the Russian Ministry of Privatization, drafted Russia's first healthcare financing legislation, and managed over 30 financial restructuring projects throughout Europe. At The Boston Consulting Group, she specialized in public sector restructuring and industrial strategy.

Government service

Bilmes has held senior positions in government including US Assistant Secretary and CFO of the United States Department of Commerce under US President Bill Clinton. Prior to joining the Harvard faculty, Bilmes served in government during the Presidency of Bill Clinton. She was twice confirmed by the U.S. Senate, as Assistant Secretary for Administration and Budget, and as Chief Financial Officer, of the United States Department of Commerce. She previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Administration. She has been appointed to several high-ranking commissions,including a Treasury Department commission to examine the viability of the Inter-American Investment Corporation. She served as a commissioner on the bipartisan National Parks Second Century Commission and is currently serving on the U.S. Department of Interior National Parks System Advisory Board and on the US Department of Labor Advisory Board on Veterans Employment and Training. She is one of 24 experts on the United Nations Committee of Experts on Public Administration (CEPA)

Books and publications

Bilmes is the author of several important books, book chapters and academic papers. She is co-author, with Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, of The Three Trillion Dollar War, which became a New York Times and international best-seller (W.W. Norton). She is co-author of The People Factor: Strengthening America by Investing in Public Service with W. Scott Gould. (Brookings Institution Press) and Gebt un das Risiko Zuruck with Peter Strueven and Konrad Wetzker.

Personal life

Bilmes is married to Jonathan Hakim, a British citizen. They have three sons. She supports the Boston Red Sox.

External links

• Bilmes' listing in the Kennedy School staff directory
• Bilmes, Linda; Stiglitz, Joseph E. (February 2006). "The Economic Costs of the Iraq War: An Appraisal Three Years After the Beginning of the Conflict". NBER Working Paper No. 12054. doi:10.3386/w12054.
• Bilmes, Linda "Soldiers Returning From Iraq and Afghanistan: The Long-term Costs of Providing Veterans Medical Care and Disability Benefits" 2007 SSRN 939657
• Inside Higher education article
• Three Trillion Dollar War Blog
• List of publications
• Brookings Press People Factor blog
• Book chapter by Linda Bilmes and Joseph Stiglitz in Lessons from Iraq: Avoiding the Next War ed. by Miriam Pemberton and William Hartung
• Book chapter by Linda Bilmes and Jeffrey Neal in "For the People" ed. by John Donahue and Joseph Nye
• Bilmes, Linda. Book chapter "Scoring Goals for People and Company" in Mastering People Management Ed. James Pickford.
• Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes “Estimating the costs of war: Methodological issues, with applications to Iraq and Afghanistan” in the Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Peace and Conflict. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2010.
• Bilmes, Linda and Joseph Stiglitz. "The long-term costs of conflict: the case of the Iraq War" in Handbook On the Economics of Conflict. Eds. Derek L. Braddon and Keith Hartley. Edward Elgar Publishing, June 2011.
• Bilmes, Linda and Joseph Stiglitz. "The $10 Trillion Hangover: Paying the Price for Eight Years of Bush." Harper's, January 2009.
• Bilmes, Linda and Joseph Stiglitz. "The $3 Trillion War." Vanity Fair, April 2008.
• Bilmes, Linda and Joseph Stiglitz, "The Economic Cost of Iraq War." Milken Institute, 4th Qtr, October 2006.
• Bilmes, Linda and W. Scott Gould. "New Book Looks at What College Students are Thinking about Government Jobs." Federal Manager Magazine, April 2006.