Kevin Harrington (national security advisor)
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Kevin Harrington | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1969 or 1970[1] |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Occupation(s) | Physicist; hedge fund manager; government official |
| Office | Senior director for strategic planning on the National Security Council |
Kevin Harrington is an American physicist, hedge fund manager and government official, who serves as senior director for strategic planning on the National Security Council (NSC).[2] Harrington was previously a managing director at Thiel Macro LLC (also an office manager at Thiel Capital, and before that managing director at Clarium Capital[3][1]) and a close associate of Peter Thiel.[4][1][3]
Harrington graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics and physics from the University of Idaho.[4] He was a Goldwater Scholar and conducted mathematics research for the Department of Defense.[4]
He later pursued doctoral studies in physics at Stanford University as a NSF Fellow and consulted for the Stanford-based Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) on fissile material security and critical infrastructure protection.[1]
When at Stanford, he wrote for the Stanford Review.[5][6] He is noted as having served as the senior class president in a 1995 Stanford news release.[1]
Business career
Harrington worked at Peter Thiel's Clarium Capital Management and later as managing director and head of research at Thiel Macro LLC, a San Francisco–based global macro hedge fund founded by Peter Thiel.[4] He also worked at Thiel Capital.[7] Harrington has been credited as a co-author of the original business plan for PayPal.[4]
He was trusted by Thiel, who considered him his alter-ego and intellectual sparring partner.[8] Harrington said, "Peter is my foil, and I’m his foil."[1]”