Ted Halstead

Ted Halstead, the head of a climate activism group that brought together conservatives and major polluters like Exxon Mobil and Conoco Phillips to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, died in a hiking accident in Spain. He had recently turned 52. Ted Halstead, New America’s founder, served as the institution’s first president and CEO from its inception in 1999 until September, 2007. He is a frequent public speaker and media commentator, having appeared as a guest on Nightline, ABC’s World News Tonight, CNN, CNBC, C-SPAN, and PBS. He has published numerous articles in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Financial Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Los Angeles Times, and The Harvard Business Review. He is co-author with Michael Lind of The Radical Center: The Future of American Politics (Doubleday, 2001), and editor of The Real State of the Union (Basic Books, 2004). Previously, Mr. Halstead was executive director of Redefining Progress, another public policy institute that he founded to promote new approaches to economic and environmental policy. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College, and received his Master’s degree from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.