Harden Wiedemann currently serves as Founder and Lead Partner of Royal Blue Partners, which engineers creative financial ways to foster sustainable philanthropy. He also serves as Mission Leader for Open Table at Lovers Lane Church in Dallas. Open Table seeks to leverage the social & intellectual capital of churches & other faith communities to assist those in some form of poverty. The Open Table model & process is being applied in many other fields now, including healthcare & medicine.
Previous to his Open Table work, Wiedemann served as Regional Director for Alpha DFW, a 25-year-old movement which originated at Holy Trinity Brompton Church in London, focused on exploring the meaning of life based on the life & teachings of Jesus Christ. Prior to this position, Wiedemann served as Managing Partner of Wiedemann Group Investment Partners, a partnership of investors and private equity companies pursuing creative structured finance in the life insurance, life settlements & longevity risk industries. He was also General Partner of Haven Capital, a group of life settlements portfolios funded with these private equity partners. He originally trained in the life insurance field with Phoenix Mutual in Dallas in 1983.
Wiedemann has more than forty years of senior leadership experience in corporate, entrepreneurial and government settings. He has worked in the fields of healthcare (Assurance Medical, Seisint), insurance (Lockton Dunning Benefit Company; Hammerman & Gainer; GAINSCO), intellectual property (United Nations, Geneva), economic development (Texas Economic Development Commission and North Texas Commission) and international trade & finance (Bristol Overseas Management). He has served in international (the U.N.), the U.S. federal and Texas state government. Harden has started several companies including Assurance Medical, Haven Capital, Bristol Overseas Management and Royal Blue Partners.
Career highlights include:
• As the youngest state economic development chief in the nation at the time (at 30), Harden ran a state agency in Austin. Prior to that he headed the staff team under Governor Mark White that landed the Microelectronics & Computer Technology Corp. (MCC) for Austin & Texas.
• As President of the North Texas Commission, Harden was part of the team that landed the $6B SSC (Superconducting Super Collider – giant atom smasher) for the State of Texas. The SSC was never built in the U.S.
• With full P&L responsibility, he launched a new healthcare division for Seisint, a Florida- based high speed computing and data analytics company that later sold to LexisNexis for $775 million.
• Served for 20 years as an independent director and on the Audit Committee of the AMEX- listed insurance company, GAINSCO. GAINSCO sold in 2020 to USAA Insurance Co. of San Antonio, Tx for $400MM. Serving twice as COO for insurance operations
• Started career in Geneva as international civil servant at one of the United Nations’ 14 specialized agencies, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
Harden is a 5th generation Texan, born and raised in Dallas. He attended St. Mark’s School of Texas, Harvard College (AB) and the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva (Diploma/MA); Geneva was on a full-ride Rotary International Fellowship. He worked for the Texas Outward Bound School in Big Bend National Park as an instructor during high school and college. At Harvard, Wiedemann played football, was elected First Class Marshal, and won the Henry N. Lamar Award (football). He is a past President of the Booker T. Washington Arts Magnet High School Advisory Board. Harden currently serves as the Board Chair of the Dallas Bethlehem Center, a 75 yr. old community center in S. Dallas. He has served as a National Director of the CEO Netweavers organization, is a partner & board member of Dallas Social Venture Partners.
Harden enjoys beekeeping, adventure travel, mentoring and walking. He has lived for extended periods in Mali (W. Africa) and Switzerland and traveled to over 30 countries. He is an avid reader and life-time learner. He recently (2020) completed the 2 yr. program of theology at the Living School/Center for Action & Contemplation in Albuquerque, NM. He and his wife, Cynthia Gulley Wiedemann, a political fundraiser with her own company, Fundraising Solutions, are the parents of three sons Hardy, Neth and Sterling and the grandparents of Emmy (8), James (3) and Freddy (1).
Harden is a Standards for Excellence Licensed Consultant for the Nonprofit Impact Institute with Social Venture Partners Dallas (SVP Dallas). For more information on the Nonprofit Impact Institute, please contact dogoodbetter@svpdallas.org.