Kenneth Klothen

Kenneth L. Klothen was director of economic development for Montgomery County Pennsylvania. Klothen was hired in 2009 to head up the seven-year, $105 million economic development program created by then commissioners James Matthews and Joe Hoeffel. He stepped down in May, 2012. Appointed Executive Director of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States by the Commission's Chair, Edgar M. Bronfman, in December, 1998. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Klothen served as General Counsel to the Corporation for National Service, the federal agency that administers domestic national service programs including AmeriCorps. Before that, Ken was President of TADD International, a consulting firm specializing in international development matters, law reform and the fostering of civil society in developing countries. Mr. Klothen has also served as Executive Director of Defense for Children International-USA, an organization engaged in monitoring and advocacy on behalf of children's rights. The son of Holocaust survivors, Mr. Klothen earned his B.A. from Swarthmore College and his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. He earned an M.A. in History from Princeton University. Mr. Klothen has served as an Adjunct Professor of human rights law at the University of Pennsylvania, Case Western Reserve and Widener Law Schools. He is an elected public official, serving as Vice President of the Borough Council of his hometown of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. He has also served on the executive boards of the National Jewish Democratic Council, the Philadelphia Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, and Americans for Peace Now. Klothen enjoys practicing law, specializing in health care. His wife, Eve Biskind Klothen, has been doing good work for years. She's executive director of the Philadelphia Volunteers for the Indigent program, a pro bono legal organization. He spent five years in Washington working for federal agencies and going to law school at night, concentrating on health-care policy. But this wasn't enough involvement for him, and he decided he wanted to litigate. He worked for law firms in Cincinnati, Cleveland and Philadelphia, but still he felt a sense of isolation. Klothen became more involved in human-rights issues in El Salvador and other Central American countries. During the 1988 presidential campaign, Klothen began to make his first break from the legal treadmill. He had been doing some work for the Michael S. Dukakis campaign, because Dukakis was a Swarthmore alumnus and because Klothen liked what the Democratic aspirant was saying about Central America. So Klothen took a leave of absence from his law firm, and worked full time for the Dukakis campaign's finance committee.