Business & Tech

Edgewood Resident Leads Buhl Foundation

Fred Thieman is focused on helping to strengthen youth and the downtown area.

Fred Thieman is leading the Buhl Foundation in an effort to strengthen the Pittsburgh region by revitalizing its very infrastructure – the downtown area and its public school system.

“Buhl believes that the region is only as strong as its core and the core is only as strong as its public education system,” Thieman said.

Thieman, 59, of Edgewood became the Buhl Foundation’s president in 2007 after establishing a long career in law and the non-profit world with a seat on the Heinz Endowments.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

With a focus on youth, capacity building in human service organizations and economic development, Thieman said the Buhl Foundation is focused on creating a better future for students through prevention.

During President Bill Clinton’s administration, Thieman became the U.S. Attorney for Western Pennsylvania, where he came to a realization.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

“I was sort of appointed as a general on the war on crime and found the criminal justice system well organized to put people in jail,” Thieman said. “Law enforcement had been too uninvolved in the prevention side of things, which was the original concept of law enforcement."

Prevention is the better and more cost effective way to keep people safe, said Thieman, and the Buhl Foundation is doing its part through major grants to the public school system and beyond. The foundation’s largest grant ever at $3 million was given to the Pittsburgh Promise, an organization focused on reforming urban schools and providing scholarships for higher education.

“We also support a lot of programs that develop STEM – which is science, technology, engineering and math, so we support a lot of programs that integrate STEM or arts and culture programming into public schools and we support programs that assist teachers with professional development opportunities,” Thieman said.

Thieman began his career after graduating from Penn State University in 1973 with degrees in English and Journalism. He then graduated from the University of Pittsburgh law school in 1977.

Thieman worked at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court from 1977 to 1979, then became an assistant U.S. attorney and federal prosecutor for the Department of Justice until 1983.

After taking seven months off after marrying his wife, Christine Thieman, he practiced law as a criminal defense attorney with a focus on white-collar crime for nine years. President Bill Clinton appointed Thieman as the U.S. Attorney for Western Pennsylvania where he worked for four years.

“Then I went back into private practice for 10 years again specializing in white-collar crime,” Thieman said. “While I was a U.S. attorney, I got heavily involved in youth crime prevention efforts, which got me involved in the education and foundation communities.”

Teresa Heinz Kerry then invited Thieman onto the Heinz Endowments board. In 2004, he became a member of the Buhl Foundation board as well.

“In 2007, when the Buhl president decided he was resigning, I resigned from the board and threw my hat into the ring,” he said of his current position.

Thieman said the Buhl Foundation’s main goals include supporting continued riverfront development in the golden triangle, downtown revitalization, prevention activities for youth and attracting more people to the downtown corridor.

The main obstacles facing youth today are a weak public school system that needs to become more efficient and effective, the cost of higher education and the absence of good role models.

Thieman and his wife have four adult children all who were raised in Edgewood, a “great place to raise a family,” he said.

For more information, visit www.buhlfoundation.org.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Forest Hills-Regent Square