Stanley A. Weiss

Stanley A. Weiss (December 21, 1926 – August 26, 2021 ) was an American business executive, founder of Business Executives for National Security (BENS), and a writer on international affairs. He has been described as a "self-made man" and a "multi-faceted ... multi-movied bon vivant".

Inspired by the film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre to search for gold in Mexico in the 1950s, Weiss became a successful entrepreneur in the mining industry before turning to politics as co-founder of the Citizen's Party and founder of BENS, and anti-nuclear advocacy group that successfully campaigned for the closure of unnecessary U.S. military bases, reforming Pentagon procurement, passing the Chemical Weapons Convention, and catalyzing President Bill Clinton's 2000 visit to India.

Weiss started writing on national security issues in 1983 and has continued to write regularly on a wide range of foreign and domestic issues for titles including the International Herald Tribune, The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, and Strategic Affairs'. He wrote on international affairs for the Huffington Post.

His memoir Being Dead is Bad for Business was published by Disruption Books in February 2017.

Early life and education

Weiss was born on December 21, 1926, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father worked in local Republican politics.

He joined the U.S. Army in January 1944, shortly after his seventeenth birthday, and was discharged with the rank of Sergeant in August, 1946. Weiss credited President Harry Truman's decision to use the atomic bomb with probably saving his life because he was training for the U.S. invasion of Japan when the war ended.

He attended Lehigh University, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Pennsylvania Military College and the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. He was also the Business Fellow at Harvard University's Center for International Affairs, now known as the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.

Business success

During his time as a Georgetown student in 1951, Weiss was inspired by the John Huston film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre to search for gold in Mexico. His business succeeded and Inc. Magazine described Weiss's 1977 book Manganese: The Other Uses as the "definitive text on the non-metallurgical uses of manganese".

Weiss diversified his businesses and in 1960, he founded American Minerals, Inc., of which he served as chairman until 1991. When the company merged with Premier Refractories, Inc., Weiss served as chairman of the merged entity until 1997. Along with partners Charley and John Gehret, Weiss also started Premier Magnesia, the largest domestic supplier of magnesia in the United States.

Working with entrepreneur Ara Oztemel, Weiss also played a role in fostering trade between the United States and Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War by cutting a deal to import Soviet chromium into the United States.

In 1994, a BENS report that twenty-six of the twenty-seven bases recommended for closure under the BRAC process remained open or had reopened with new federal tenants helped speed the bases' closures back. Weiss was invited to address the issue on CBS’ 60 Minutes, where he called the actions "political pork at its worst". which mobilized private corporations in natural disaster recovery efforts and was active in recovery efforts after Hurricane Sandy.

In 2007, Weiss stepped down as the Chairman of BENS and assumed the title of Founding Chairman. That year, Weiss received the Distinguished Civilian Service Award from the US Department of Defense.

Political advocacy

After his Harvard fellowship, Weiss created and financed the Nuclear Information Resource Service (NIRS),

In 1991, Weiss became involved in a private sector-led, not-for-profit venture to reinvent America's public schools under President George H. W. Bush's "America 2000 Initiative"; the New American Schools Development Corporation sought to create new partnerships between business and government to improve US schools. Weiss and other members proposed "break-the-mold" designs for school reform. The ideas gained support within the Bush administration but failed due to opposition from the teachers’ unions.

Writing and publishing career

Weiss nearly purchased the magazine Ramparts, which faced financial troubles in 1968. He had written as broadly and consistently on issues related to southeastern Asia and the Asian subcontinent the past 20 years – including Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, India – as any other American writer. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, he was a regular op-ed contributor to the International Herald Tribune. the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Times, the Washington Post, UPI, Strategic Review, and the New York Times. He also appeared in the film. He was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Ditchley Foundation, and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Weiss had served on the Board of Visitors at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, the advisory board of the RAND Center for Middle East Public Policy, and the advisory board of the International Crisis Group.