Marc Kesselman

Keith Hennessey

Lecturer in Economics, Stanford Graduate School of Business

Biography

I spent more than 14 years in economic policy roles advising senior elected officials, including for a time as the senior White House economic advisor to President George W. Bush. As Deputy Director and then Director of the White House National Economic Council, I coordinated economic policy design and implementation for the President.

The last thirteen months of my time in the White House were by far the most intense, helping advise President Bush on his Administration’s response to the financial crisis.

In addition to that work, here are some of the major Presidential policies that I helped design, enact, and implement:

the 2003 law that cut taxes on income, capital gains, dividends, marriage, children, small businesses and estates;
the 2008 economic stimulus, as well as tax cuts in 2004, 2005, and 2006;
successfully opposing repeated Congressional efforts to raise taxes in 2007 and 2008;
reforming the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac;
two energy laws that support nuclear power and other alternative energy technologies, and will reduce U.S. gasoline consumption 20 percent by 2017;
eliminating the ban on offshore drilling for oil and natural gas;
the “Major Economies” process that restructured global climate change negotiations to ensure participation by all large economies;
creating Health Savings Accounts and implementing health policies to improve price and quality transparency;
bringing private sector competition and market forces to Medicare and adding a prescription drug benefit;
providing loans to U.S. auto manufacturers in 2008;
coordinating the response to the 2002 West Coast Port Strike;
coordinating the response to the 2002 Mad Cow disease outbreak;
creating Terrorism Reinsurance after the 9/11 attacks; and
the most popular economic policy change of President Bush’s tenure: the Do-Not-Call list.

I was heavily involved in budget and international economic issues, including all of the President’s budget submissions from 2003-2008, his line item veto proposal and earmark reforms, the G-20 summit of 2008, several Free Trade Agreements and the Doha global trade negotiations, and the President’s open investment policies.

There are several policies which, while not enacted into law during the Bush Administration, I hope will serve as models for future reforms, including President Bush’s:

Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid reform proposals, with the goal of making these entitlement programs sustainable over the long run;
proposal for a standard tax deduction for health insurance and health insurance market reforms, to move toward market-based health care and make health insurance more affordable for tens of millions of Americans;
proposal to make our farm programs less trade-distorting and more fiscally responsible; and
proposals to make permanent the tax relief enacted in 2001 and 2003 and prevent future tax increases.

Before working for President Bush I was an aide to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS). I helped him enact economic legislation (and block other legislation) including the 1997 Balanced Budget Act and President Bush’s 2001 tax cut. I came to Senator Lott’s staff from the Senate Budget Committee staff, where I spent two years as a health and retirement economist working for the Chairman, Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM).

I’ve got a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School and a B.A.S. in Math and Political Science from Stanford.

Marc Kesselman

Chief Legal Officer & EVP Strategy and Corporate Affairs, Purdue Pharma L.P.

Biography

Marc Kesselman was appointed General Counsel of Purdue Pharma L.P. in July 2018, with responsibility for Purdue’s legal strategy, corporate governance, compliance, and government affairs. He has since been promoted to Chief Legal Officer and EVP Strategy & Corporate Affairs with added oversight of strategy, business development, human resources, security, and communications. Marc joined Purdue Pharma after the company came under intense scrutiny and is helping to engineer a corporate turnaround. Under Marc's leadership, Purdue has secured initial approval of its plan to emerge as a public-minded company dedicated to abating the opioid crisis, responsibly manufacturing and distributing opioid analgesics, and advancing a robust pipeline of non-opioid medicines with the promise of addressing serious medical conditions.

Prior to joining Purdue Pharma, Marc worked for YUM! Brands, Inc. where he served as Chief Legal Officer, Corporate Secretary & Chief Public Policy Officer. In that role, he oversaw all aspects of legal, compliance, regulatory, government affairs, and sustainability agendas for one of the world’s largest restaurant companies, with more than 45,000 restaurants in 135 countries and territories. Marc joined Yum! from Dean Foods where he held a similar role. Previously, he was Senior Vice President & General Counsel at PepsiCo America’s Foods where he oversaw a wide variety of complex commercial, transactional, litigation, regulatory, and government affairs issues relating to PepsiCo's food businesses in North and South America.

From 2006 through 2008, Marc served as General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), where he advised the Secretary of Agriculture and directed all legal activity for the Department. For the previous three years, he served as Deputy General Counsel in the White House Office of Management and Budget, where he handled a variety of regulatory, budgetary and legal policy matters. Marc also worked at the U.S. Department of Justice as Senior Counsel in the Office of Legal Policy and as a Trial Attorney in its Civil Division. His work there earned him the John Marshall Award, the Attorney General’s highest recognition for trial of litigation.

Marc currently serves on the Board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Litigation Center, and the Penn Law Alumni Board of Managers. He has previously served as a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States, on the Board of the Dallas Symphony, on the Campaign Cabinet of the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, and as Chair of the DC Bar Administrative Law Section. He has been named as one of the most influential General Counsel in America by Chambers & Partners, and twice named to the D CEO list of the most influential business leaders in Dallas. In 2023, Marc was named a "Legend in the Law" by the Burton Awards in association with the American Bar Association and the Library of Congress.

Marc holds a JD with honors from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.A. in Government magna cum laude from Cornell University.

Keith Hennessey

Lecturer in Economics, Stanford Graduate School of Business

Biography

I spent more than 14 years in economic policy roles advising senior elected officials, including for a time as the senior White House economic advisor to President George W. Bush. As Deputy Director and then Director of the White House National Economic Council, I coordinated economic policy design and implementation for the President.

The last thirteen months of my time in the White House were by far the most intense, helping advise President Bush on his Administration’s response to the financial crisis.

In addition to that work, here are some of the major Presidential policies that I helped design, enact, and implement:

the 2003 law that cut taxes on income, capital gains, dividends, marriage, children, small businesses and estates;
the 2008 economic stimulus, as well as tax cuts in 2004, 2005, and 2006;
successfully opposing repeated Congressional efforts to raise taxes in 2007 and 2008;
reforming the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac;
two energy laws that support nuclear power and other alternative energy technologies, and will reduce U.S. gasoline consumption 20 percent by 2017;
eliminating the ban on offshore drilling for oil and natural gas;
the “Major Economies” process that restructured global climate change negotiations to ensure participation by all large economies;
creating Health Savings Accounts and implementing health policies to improve price and quality transparency;
bringing private sector competition and market forces to Medicare and adding a prescription drug benefit;
providing loans to U.S. auto manufacturers in 2008;
coordinating the response to the 2002 West Coast Port Strike;
coordinating the response to the 2002 Mad Cow disease outbreak;
creating Terrorism Reinsurance after the 9/11 attacks; and
the most popular economic policy change of President Bush’s tenure: the Do-Not-Call list.

I was heavily involved in budget and international economic issues, including all of the President’s budget submissions from 2003-2008, his line item veto proposal and earmark reforms, the G-20 summit of 2008, several Free Trade Agreements and the Doha global trade negotiations, and the President’s open investment policies.

There are several policies which, while not enacted into law during the Bush Administration, I hope will serve as models for future reforms, including President Bush’s:

Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid reform proposals, with the goal of making these entitlement programs sustainable over the long run;
proposal for a standard tax deduction for health insurance and health insurance market reforms, to move toward market-based health care and make health insurance more affordable for tens of millions of Americans;
proposal to make our farm programs less trade-distorting and more fiscally responsible; and
proposals to make permanent the tax relief enacted in 2001 and 2003 and prevent future tax increases.

Before working for President Bush I was an aide to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS). I helped him enact economic legislation (and block other legislation) including the 1997 Balanced Budget Act and President Bush’s 2001 tax cut. I came to Senator Lott’s staff from the Senate Budget Committee staff, where I spent two years as a health and retirement economist working for the Chairman, Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM).

I’ve got a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School and a B.A.S. in Math and Political Science from Stanford.

Marc Kesselman

Chief Legal Officer & EVP Strategy and Corporate Affairs, Purdue Pharma L.P.

Biography

Marc Kesselman was appointed General Counsel of Purdue Pharma L.P. in July 2018, with responsibility for Purdue’s legal strategy, corporate governance, compliance, and government affairs. He has since been promoted to Chief Legal Officer and EVP Strategy & Corporate Affairs with added oversight of strategy, business development, human resources, security, and communications. Marc joined Purdue Pharma after the company came under intense scrutiny and is helping to engineer a corporate turnaround. Under Marc's leadership, Purdue has secured initial approval of its plan to emerge as a public-minded company dedicated to abating the opioid crisis, responsibly manufacturing and distributing opioid analgesics, and advancing a robust pipeline of non-opioid medicines with the promise of addressing serious medical conditions.

Prior to joining Purdue Pharma, Marc worked for YUM! Brands, Inc. where he served as Chief Legal Officer, Corporate Secretary & Chief Public Policy Officer. In that role, he oversaw all aspects of legal, compliance, regulatory, government affairs, and sustainability agendas for one of the world’s largest restaurant companies, with more than 45,000 restaurants in 135 countries and territories. Marc joined Yum! from Dean Foods where he held a similar role. Previously, he was Senior Vice President & General Counsel at PepsiCo America’s Foods where he oversaw a wide variety of complex commercial, transactional, litigation, regulatory, and government affairs issues relating to PepsiCo's food businesses in North and South America.

From 2006 through 2008, Marc served as General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), where he advised the Secretary of Agriculture and directed all legal activity for the Department. For the previous three years, he served as Deputy General Counsel in the White House Office of Management and Budget, where he handled a variety of regulatory, budgetary and legal policy matters. Marc also worked at the U.S. Department of Justice as Senior Counsel in the Office of Legal Policy and as a Trial Attorney in its Civil Division. His work there earned him the John Marshall Award, the Attorney General’s highest recognition for trial of litigation.

Marc currently serves on the Board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Litigation Center, and the Penn Law Alumni Board of Managers. He has previously served as a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States, on the Board of the Dallas Symphony, on the Campaign Cabinet of the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, and as Chair of the DC Bar Administrative Law Section. He has been named as one of the most influential General Counsel in America by Chambers & Partners, and twice named to the D CEO list of the most influential business leaders in Dallas. In 2023, Marc was named a "Legend in the Law" by the Burton Awards in association with the American Bar Association and the Library of Congress.

Marc holds a JD with honors from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.A. in Government magna cum laude from Cornell University.

Keith Hennessey

Lecturer in Economics, Stanford Graduate School of Business

Biography

I spent more than 14 years in economic policy roles advising senior elected officials, including for a time as the senior White House economic advisor to President George W. Bush. As Deputy Director and then Director of the White House National Economic Council, I coordinated economic policy design and implementation for the President.

The last thirteen months of my time in the White House were by far the most intense, helping advise President Bush on his Administration’s response to the financial crisis.

In addition to that work, here are some of the major Presidential policies that I helped design, enact, and implement:

the 2003 law that cut taxes on income, capital gains, dividends, marriage, children, small businesses and estates;
the 2008 economic stimulus, as well as tax cuts in 2004, 2005, and 2006;
successfully opposing repeated Congressional efforts to raise taxes in 2007 and 2008;
reforming the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac;
two energy laws that support nuclear power and other alternative energy technologies, and will reduce U.S. gasoline consumption 20 percent by 2017;
eliminating the ban on offshore drilling for oil and natural gas;
the “Major Economies” process that restructured global climate change negotiations to ensure participation by all large economies;
creating Health Savings Accounts and implementing health policies to improve price and quality transparency;
bringing private sector competition and market forces to Medicare and adding a prescription drug benefit;
providing loans to U.S. auto manufacturers in 2008;
coordinating the response to the 2002 West Coast Port Strike;
coordinating the response to the 2002 Mad Cow disease outbreak;
creating Terrorism Reinsurance after the 9/11 attacks; and
the most popular economic policy change of President Bush’s tenure: the Do-Not-Call list.

I was heavily involved in budget and international economic issues, including all of the President’s budget submissions from 2003-2008, his line item veto proposal and earmark reforms, the G-20 summit of 2008, several Free Trade Agreements and the Doha global trade negotiations, and the President’s open investment policies.

There are several policies which, while not enacted into law during the Bush Administration, I hope will serve as models for future reforms, including President Bush’s:

Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid reform proposals, with the goal of making these entitlement programs sustainable over the long run;
proposal for a standard tax deduction for health insurance and health insurance market reforms, to move toward market-based health care and make health insurance more affordable for tens of millions of Americans;
proposal to make our farm programs less trade-distorting and more fiscally responsible; and
proposals to make permanent the tax relief enacted in 2001 and 2003 and prevent future tax increases.

Before working for President Bush I was an aide to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS). I helped him enact economic legislation (and block other legislation) including the 1997 Balanced Budget Act and President Bush’s 2001 tax cut. I came to Senator Lott’s staff from the Senate Budget Committee staff, where I spent two years as a health and retirement economist working for the Chairman, Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM).

I’ve got a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School and a B.A.S. in Math and Political Science from Stanford.

Marc Kesselman

Chief Legal Officer & EVP Strategy and Corporate Affairs, Purdue Pharma L.P.

Biography

Marc Kesselman was appointed General Counsel of Purdue Pharma L.P. in July 2018, with responsibility for Purdue’s legal strategy, corporate governance, compliance, and government affairs. He has since been promoted to Chief Legal Officer and EVP Strategy & Corporate Affairs with added oversight of strategy, business development, human resources, security, and communications. Marc joined Purdue Pharma after the company came under intense scrutiny and is helping to engineer a corporate turnaround. Under Marc's leadership, Purdue has secured initial approval of its plan to emerge as a public-minded company dedicated to abating the opioid crisis, responsibly manufacturing and distributing opioid analgesics, and advancing a robust pipeline of non-opioid medicines with the promise of addressing serious medical conditions.

Prior to joining Purdue Pharma, Marc worked for YUM! Brands, Inc. where he served as Chief Legal Officer, Corporate Secretary & Chief Public Policy Officer. In that role, he oversaw all aspects of legal, compliance, regulatory, government affairs, and sustainability agendas for one of the world’s largest restaurant companies, with more than 45,000 restaurants in 135 countries and territories. Marc joined Yum! from Dean Foods where he held a similar role. Previously, he was Senior Vice President & General Counsel at PepsiCo America’s Foods where he oversaw a wide variety of complex commercial, transactional, litigation, regulatory, and government affairs issues relating to PepsiCo's food businesses in North and South America.

From 2006 through 2008, Marc served as General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), where he advised the Secretary of Agriculture and directed all legal activity for the Department. For the previous three years, he served as Deputy General Counsel in the White House Office of Management and Budget, where he handled a variety of regulatory, budgetary and legal policy matters. Marc also worked at the U.S. Department of Justice as Senior Counsel in the Office of Legal Policy and as a Trial Attorney in its Civil Division. His work there earned him the John Marshall Award, the Attorney General’s highest recognition for trial of litigation.

Marc currently serves on the Board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Litigation Center, and the Penn Law Alumni Board of Managers. He has previously served as a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States, on the Board of the Dallas Symphony, on the Campaign Cabinet of the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, and as Chair of the DC Bar Administrative Law Section. He has been named as one of the most influential General Counsel in America by Chambers & Partners, and twice named to the D CEO list of the most influential business leaders in Dallas. In 2023, Marc was named a "Legend in the Law" by the Burton Awards in association with the American Bar Association and the Library of Congress.

Marc holds a JD with honors from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.A. in Government magna cum laude from Cornell University.

Marc Kesselman

Chief Legal Officer & EVP Strategy and Corporate Affairs, Purdue Pharma L.P.

Interview: The 2008 Financial Crisis

2015 Texas Chapters Conference

Interview: The 2008 Financial Crisis

Interview: The 2008 Financial Crisis

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Interview: The 2008 Financial Crisis

2015 Texas Chapters Conference

Interview: The 2008 Financial Crisis

Interview: The 2008 Financial Crisis