Stanley A. Weiss

His memoir Being Dead is Bad for Business was published by Disruption Books in February 2017.

On February 28, 2017, Weiss’ memoir titled "Being Dead is Bad for Business" was published by Disruption Books.

In 2007, Weiss stepped down as the Chairman of BENS and assumed the title of Founding Chairman. That year, Weiss received the Distinguished Civilian Service Award from the US Department of Defense.

In 1998, Weiss and BENS CEO Tom McInerney published an op-ed on the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. The opening line stated "the United States wants terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden dead – or alive".

In 1994, a BENS report that twenty-six of the twenty-seven bases recommended for closure under the BRAC process remained open or had reopened with new federal tenants helped speed the bases' closures back. Weiss was invited to address the issue on CBS’ 60 Minutes, where he called the actions "political pork at its worst".

In 1991, Weiss became involved in a private sector-led, not-for-profit venture to reinvent America's public schools under President George H. W. Bush's "America 2000 Initiative"; the New American Schools Development Corporation sought to create new partnerships between business and government to improve US schools. Weiss and other members proposed "break-the-mold" designs for school reform. The ideas gained support within the Bush administration but failed due to opposition from the teachers’ unions.

BENS initially focused largely on arms control and defense procurement. In a series of op-eds, Weiss drew attention to the dangers of nuclear proliferation and said The Pentagon was operating on outdated assessments of national security needs in justifying inefficient acquisitions and unnecessary bases. The Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Act of 1990, which helped remove pork barrel politics from the base-closing process by appointing a U.S. government commission to recommend closures, was based on a concept proposed by a BENS member. BENS also influenced the passage of the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program.

Weiss invested in Harman International Industries before it went public in 1986. He served on the company's board of directors for two decades.

Weiss started writing on national security issues in 1983 and has continued to write regularly on a wide range of foreign and domestic issues for titles including the International Herald Tribune, The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, and Strategic Affairs'. He wrote on international affairs for the Huffington Post.

In a February 2, 1983, interview on the Today show, host Jane Pauley asked Weiss why senior business leaders were becoming vocal about issues pertaining to nuclear war. His reply later became his signature catchphrase: "Being dead is bad for business".

Weiss had written op-eds on international affairs and national security issues since 1983. He had written as broadly and consistently on issues related to southeastern Asia and the Asian subcontinent the past 20 years – including Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, India – as any other American writer. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, he was a regular op-ed contributor to the International Herald Tribune. His writing has also appeared in Foreign Affairs the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Times, the Washington Post, UPI, Strategic Review, and the New York Times. He wrote about international affairs for The Huffington Post.

Based in part on his work on nuclear non-proliferation at Harvard, in 1982, Weiss founded Business Executives for National Security (BENS), a non-partisan organization that represents the perspective of business leaders on national security issues.

Although he never found gold, he found rich deposits of manganese ore, often braving dangerous or isolated conditions to secure new supplies. His business succeeded and Inc. Magazine described Weiss's 1977 book Manganese: The Other Uses as the "definitive text on the non-metallurgical uses of manganese".

With the support of John Kenneth Galbraith, a liberal economist and Harvard professor, Weiss became the Business Fellow at Harvard University's Center for International Affairs for the 1977–1978 school year.

Weiss was the executive producer for The Hired Hand, a 1971 film starring Peter Fonda, and also appeared in it. He also appeared in the film.

In 1971, Weiss and his family moved to London. He was a member of the Garrick Club and the Queen's tennis club.

Weiss was a co-founder of the Citizen's Party, which was dissatisfied with the Carter administration and focused on economic democracy and solving the 1970s energy crisis. The Party recruited environmentalist Barry Commoner to run in the 1980 presidential election.

Weiss nearly purchased the magazine Ramparts, which faced financial troubles in 1968.

Weiss diversified his businesses and in 1960, he founded American Minerals, Inc., of which he served as chairman until 1991. When the company merged with Premier Refractories, Inc., Weiss served as chairman of the merged entity until 1997. Along with partners Charley and John Gehret, Weiss also started Premier Magnesia, the largest domestic supplier of magnesia in the United States. In 2007, Premier Magnesia aligned with Giles Chemical, the largest supplier of Epsom salt.

Weiss frequently visited 1960s San Francisco, home of the nascent counterculture movement. Weiss maintained close friendships with San Francisco journalists Herb Caen and Art Hoppe. Writers Barnaby Conrad and Herb Gold, advertising pioneers Walter Landor and Howard Gossage, as well as proctologist-turned-ventriloquist Gerry Feigen were among a group of friends who met regularly with Weiss at Trader Vic's. His closest friends were the entrepreneur Harry Hunt and attorney Bernard Petrie.

During his time as a Georgetown student in 1951, Weiss was inspired by the John Huston film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre to search for gold in Mexico.

Inspired by the film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre to search for gold in Mexico in the 1950s, Weiss became a successful entrepreneur in the mining industry before turning to politics as co-founder of the Citizen's Party and founder of BENS, and anti-nuclear advocacy group that successfully campaigned for the closure of unnecessary U.S. military bases, reforming Pentagon procurement, passing the Chemical Weapons Convention, and catalyzing President Bill Clinton's 2000 visit to India.

He joined the U.S. Army in January 1944, shortly after his seventeenth birthday, and was discharged with the rank of Sergeant in August, 1946. Weiss credited President Harry Truman's decision to use the atomic bomb with probably saving his life because he was training for the U.S. invasion of Japan when the war ended.

Stanley A. Weiss (December 21, 1926 – August 26, 2021) was an American business executive, founder of Business Executives for National Security (BENS), and a writer on international affairs. He has been described as a "self-made man" and a "multi-faceted ... multi-movied bon vivant".

Weiss was born on December 21, 1926, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father worked in local Republican politics.