WASHINGTON, Feb. 6, 2018— Kim R. Holmes, Ph.D., has been named executive vice president of The Heritage Foundation, one of the nation’s premier think tanks.

As executive vice president, Holmes will function as the organization’s chief operating officer, overseeing all operations of the Capitol Hill institution. He will also advise Heritage President Kay Coles James on strategic and managerial matters.

“Kim has long had a profound impact on American policy, and we are thrilled he is continuing his stellar service to The Heritage Foundation with this well-deserved leadership role,” James said.

Heritage’s Board of Trustees unanimously selected Holmes at its meeting Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

“As a longtime leader at Heritage, Kim Holmes has a deep understanding of and appreciation for scholarly research,” said Thomas A. Saunders III, chairman of Heritage’s Board of Trustees. “He and Kay Coles James provide Heritage with a powerful combination of domestic and foreign policy experience.”

Holmes called his appointment “an awesome responsibility,” and said he was “truly honored at this display of trust in me by Mrs. James and the Board of Trustees.”

“Kay has mapped out an exciting vision for Heritage and the conservative movement,” Holmes added, “and I can’t wait to start helping turn that vision of a better America into reality.”

Holmes joined Heritage in 1985. Six years later, he was named vice president of defense and foreign policy studies, a post he held for more than two decades. Most recently, he was acting senior vice president for research, overseeing all four of the think tank’s research institutes.

Holmes has long been recognized as a leading expert in international relations as well as national security policy. In 2002, he took a four-year hiatus from Heritage to serve as an assistant secretary of state during President George W. Bush’s first term. At the State Department, he coordinated U.S. participation in the United Nations and 46 other international organizations.

He returned to the think tank in 2005, and resumed leadership of four research centers: the Asian Studies Center, the Center for International Trade and Economics, the Thatcher Center for Freedom, and the Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies.

In 2008, Heritage named Holmes a distinguished fellow. His first project in that capacity was to complete “Liberty’s Best Hope: American Leadership for the 21st Century,” a book fusing Heritage’s domestic and foreign policy ideas into a compelling new vision for establishing freedom at home and abroad.

He has since published two more books: “Rebound: Getting American Back to Great” (Rowman & Littlefied, 2013) and “The Closing of the Liberal Mind” (Encounter, 2016). An updated paperback version of the latter was released in December.

A historian by training, Holmes holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Central Florida, and a master’s and doctoral degree from Georgetown University. The father of two and grandfather of four, he lives in Oakton, Virginia.

Established in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is the world’s most widely supported think tank, with more than a half-million members nationwide.