Negotiating tragedy with Kenneth Feinberg

The opportunities are rare to hear a first-hand account from a public servant who has helped oversee the responses to some of our nation’s greatest tragedies and disasters, including the 9/11 terror attacks and the BP oil spill two years ago.

But that opportunity will be a reality for attendees of the JCC’s 14th Annual Ann Katz Festival of Books and Arts when they spend an evening with Kenneth Feinberg, one of the nation’s leading experts in mediation and dispute resolution.

In the last decade, Feinberg has risen to prominence for serving as the lead administrator of the funds created to support the victims of the 9/11 terror attacks, the fatal stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair in 2011 and the BP oil spill among others. 

In 2009, the Secretary of the Treasury appointed Feinberg the Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation, putting him in the position to determine the annual compensation packages for senior corporate officials at companies that received the most taxpayer financial assistance in the wake of the Great Recession that began in 2008.

Feinberg is arguably the nation’s foremost expert on dispute resolution strategy and related compensation, and his talk at the Ann Katz Festival on October 29 at 5 p.m. will be a rare chance to hear the psychology, calculations and objectivity that came into play with each of his heart-wrenching assignments to fairly distribute compensatory funds to victims.

A complete list of other presenters and events at this year’s Ann Katz Festival of Books and Arts is available online.