Michael D. Rich is president emeritus at the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organisation that helps improve policy and decision-making through research and analysis. For nearly 50 years, he helped RAND become a leading source of expertise, analysis and evidence-based ideas in an increasingly complex and polarised policymaking environment.  

During his tenure as president and CEO from 2011 to 2022, Rich focused on extending the impact of RAND’s work. He challenged the organisation to broaden its legacy of innovation and help decision makers stay ahead of the curve on the issues that matter most. Rich is the coauthor of Truth Decay, the first study in an ongoing series of research that examines how the diminishing role of facts and analysis in public life has caused an erosion of civil discourse and political dysfunction, among other problems. 

 In 2020, Rich launched the ongoing fundraising campaign Tomorrow Demands Today, the most ambitious such effort in RAND’s history. Philanthropic support enables RAND researchers and students at the Pardee RAND Graduate School to bring bold thinking, analytical rigor, and cross-cutting perspectives to the most critical issues of our time.  When he retired in 2022, RAND was more than half-way toward the fundraising goal, with several years to go. 

 Rich began his RAND career as a summer intern in 1975, joining the organisation full-time the following year as a researcher focused on U.S. national security issues. He served in a variety of senior leadership positions at RAND and was instrumental in the creation of the RAND National Defense Research Institute, a federally funded research and development center that provides research and analysis to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, the Combatant Commands, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the defense agencies, and the Intelligence Community. He also helped lead RAND’s diversification and expansion into international markets—including Europe, the Middle East, and Australia. Throughout his career, Rich has been an enthusiastic supporter of Pardee RAND, the world’s largest public policy Ph.D. program, where he has taught and advised graduate students and has chaired numerous committees.   

Rich serves on the governing boards and advisory committees of many policy and service organisations, including the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, WISE & Healthy Aging, the Everychild Foundation, and the UCLA Health System. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the California Bar, and he served on the U.S. Defense Science Board from 2012 to 2021 and the board of directors for the Council for Aid to Education from 1996 to 2022.  

Rich received his J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, and his B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley. In June 2022, the Pardee RAND Graduate School conferred upon Rich the honorary degree of Doctor of Public Policy.