Heritage Foundation Leadership for America

Mike Needham serves as an advisor to The Heritage Foundation's President, Edwin J. Feulner, Jr.

Prior to returning to Heritage, Needham was Special Assistant to the Policy Director on Rudy Giuliani's Presidential Campaign. In this capacity, he was responsible for working with Policy Director Bill Simon in overseeing all aspects of policy development for the campaign, including policy paper production, speechwriting, and debate preparation. He also served as the policy department's liason to the morning communications strategy meetings and was responsible for developing the campaign's health care, immigration, and homeland security policies.

Prior to joining the Giuliani campaign, Needham served as Director of The Asian Studies Center (ASC) where he directed a staff of eight analysts and researchers committed to fostering the development of political reform, economic freedom and strong U.S. security ties in Asia. He also oversaw the Washington Roundtable for the Asia-Pacific Press (WRAPP), which facilitates discussion on a broad range of public policy issues affecting US-Asia relations.

Prior to joining the ASC, Needham was Chief of Staff of The Heritage Foundation –Washington's largest and most influential think tank and public policy organization. He worked with Heritage President Ed Feulner on all matters of public policy as well as Dr. Feulner's conservative movement activities.

In that time, he worked extensively on matters of American strategic communications in the war on terror, the role of international organizations in American foreign policy, and American fiscal policy. He has also worked closely with Feulner on the writing and production of his book, Getting America Right: The True Conservative Values Our Nation Needs Today.

Needham earned Bachelor of Arts degrees in Political Science and Economics from Williams College.