William E. Simon Becomes Olin Foundation President, Launching Strategic Conservative Funding

William E. Simon, former Treasury Secretary under Nixon and Ford, becomes president of the John M. Olin Foundation, transforming it from a relatively inactive charitable organization into a strategic engine of conservative institutional capture. Simon brings both government experience and deep connections to corporate networks, implementing a focused grantmaking strategy that targets universities, think tanks, and legal institutions in alignment with Powell Memo objectives. The Foundation, which had been energized in 1969 when 80-year-old John M. Olin witnessed the Willard Straight Hall takeover at Cornell University, now gains the leadership to execute systematic conservative philanthropy. Under Simon’s direction, the Olin Foundation becomes a major funder of law and economics programs at elite universities, supporting scholars who advance corporate-friendly legal theories and economic deregulation. Simon’s appointment in 1977 - the same year Feulner transforms Heritage and Charles Koch founds Cato - demonstrates the coordinated timing of conservative infrastructure building across multiple institutional fronts. The Foundation’s strategic approach, later replicated by Bradley Foundation under Michael Joyce, establishes the model for using tax-exempt philanthropy to reshape academic disciplines, legal scholarship, and public policy in service of corporate interests.