Bernard Winograd
Bernard Winograd, a member of NCSE's board of directors, died on March 1, 2014, at the age of 63. A successful business executive, who toward the end of his career was managing about half a trillion dollars of assets, Winograd was fervently interested in evolution and concerned with the integrity of science education. He joined NCSE's board of directors in 2010, serving as vice president and treasurer during his tenure on the board. "It wasn't just his financial acumen that was invaluable to NCSE," commented Eugenie C. Scott, then NCSE's executive director, "but his intelligence, his curiosity, his broad knowledge of so many subjects, and his passion."
In The Neighborhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time (Little, Brown 2011), David Sloan Wilson recounts his encounter with Winograd, to whom he was introduced by NCSE's Scott: "His evolution began when he was forced to take a biology course and he became fascinated with the part that dealt with evolution and biological anthropology. Ever since, he maintained an amateur's interest in evolution and saw parallels with the ways that companies compete and financial markets evolve over time." Wilson adds, "He was attracted to my work after reading Evolution for Everyone. The NCSE was defending the teaching of biological evolution in public-school education. I was gazing at humanity through the crystal ball of evolution. Bernard was interested in helping out with both endeavors." Winograd subsequently joined the executive advisory board of the Evolution Institute, cofounded by Wilson.
Winograd was born on December 31, 1950, in Detroit, Michigan. He attended the University of Chicago, graduating in 1970 with a B.A. in social sciences. During his career, he worked for the Bendix Corporation, the United States Treasury Department (where he was executive assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury, W. Michael Blumenthal), and Taubman Centers. In 1996, he joined Prudential to lead its real estate investment operations. In 2002, he started at Prudential Financial, where he was senior vice president and then executive vice president and chief operating officer, and also at Prudential Investment Management, where he was president and chief executive officer. He retired in 2011.