"The Teneo Network"
What, When, Where, Why, & Who: A Outline Survey of Project 2025's "Silicon Valley of Conservatism"
“When you’re fighting a battle for the heart and soul of our culture, you want to know you’re in the trenches with someone you can trust, someone you know, and someone who will have your back. We don’t win unless we build friendship and fellowship with other people—and that’s what you’re doing here with Teneo.”1
-Leonard Leo
Chairman of The Teneo Network
It is said that there are two sides to every story and while this is true, however though this simple didactic neglects an essential logic-truth which is that there is in reality three sides to every story, there is one-side, and then there is another side, and these individual sides can multiply into a true open ended situation, which is not necessarily always a good thing, so in order to resolve the differing sides there must be a third position that provides a reconciliation of prime singularities.
The Teneo Network appears to be of profound importance as an organization of extreme influence for both good and bad, for both liberals and conservatives, and perhaps most important of all is the fact that this network is a generational occurrence which is already accomplishing some of its goals and objectives, while the Democratic Party continues seemingly unaware of what some true Republican Party acolyte-Elites are actually accomplishing; Results that pave the way for a conservatively directed American government that is definitely rooted in a transcendent world-view, that ultimately excludes the objectivity and reliability of a developing-naturalistic epistemology which is quite simply supremely superior to the ethereal and unreal closed system thinking that can be the only expressed products of the “Democracy of the Dead’s” fixed-metaphysical epistemology.2
I. What: “Teneo is the Silicon Valley of Conservatism”
"Teneo is a network of the nation's most outstanding and entrepreneurial conservatives under 40 that seeks to establish conservatism as the most relevant, most responsive and most effective political ideology. Launched in 2008 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Teneo builds strategic, vertically integrated relationships among our 250 members - translating ideas into action."3 [2014] [Emphasis added RJR]
Advancing forward in time to 2018 the organization in question published a 47-page document titled, Teneo Community Vision in which a dynamic updated presentation of the group’s focuses, philosophies, principles, strategies, etcetera and eloquent epistolary appeals & exhortations appears:
Teneo is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) membership organization on a mission to recruit, connect, and accelerate America’s most promising leaders under 40. Rooted in conservative values, the Teneo Network seeks to accelerate human flourishing. Teneo has over 800 fellows and hundreds of allies, assisted and amplified by a team of eight in Austin, Texas. Together these energetic minds generate positive, innovative solutions to society’s most pressing problems.
We convene young influencers and wise mentors across society. In all we do, we seek to forge lasting interdisciplinary relationships that advance timeless ideas through fresh, innovative approaches that produce generational wins for our movement.
More than just a single organization, Teneo is the Silicon Valley of Conservatism—a powerful network of communities where the most influential young leaders, the biggest ideas, and the most leveraged resources come together to launch key projects that advance our shared belief that the conservative worldview drives human flourishing. pg. 8 [2018] [Emphasis added RJR]4
Teneo Community Vision [PDF copy at note 1.]
According to the organization’s website home landing page as of July 20, 2024:
Teneo is a national network where the most influential leaders, the most promising ideas, and the right resources come together to launch projects that reaffirm and renew the promise of the American experiment.
We exist to Recruit, Connect, and Deploy talented conservatives who lead opinion and shape the industries that shape society.5
Screen Shot of Teneo Network landing page taken July 20, 2024.
“We acknowledge a transcendent order, whether founded in tradition, philosophy, or theology.”
Within the screen shot above there are four points of belief displayed; point 04 is especially important to take note of as this acknowledgement is perhaps the central point of order to the entire left-right divide. See also the following notes 6 7.
II. When: Evan “Baehr established Teneo in 2008”
Evan Baehr is a serial founder of technology companies, venture investor and advisor, best-selling author, and university professor. Baehr is currently the Founder/CEO of Teneo [dead link], a national leadership organization, author of Get Backed…from Harvard Business Press, professor of marketing at the University of Texas, and cohost of the podcast Our American Experiment...
He has worked for Clarium Capital, a global macro hedge fund, the U.S. House of Representatives as a legislative aide, and the White House Office of Faith Based Initiatives. He founded the first chapter of the the Adam Smith Society, the largest organization of MBA’s committed to capitalism, and has served as a member or advisor to the Lincoln Network, Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, Ethics and Public Policy Center, Texas Public Policy Foundation, Federalist Society, Alliance Defending Freedom, and American Enterprise Institute.
He is an honors graduate of Princeton University (Woodrow Wilson School), Yale University (MA, Ethics), and Harvard Business School (MBA).8 [Emphasis added RJR]
[ Web-Archived/cache of personal website/URL of Evan Baehr, (about page), saved February 14, 2020 ]
The quotes below are sourced at the website Crooks & Liars which provides a detailed description and discussion of the birth-origins from the “Blackstone Legal Fellowship” program which itself is a project of “the Alliance Defending Freedom” and “has described the mission of the fellowship program” as being “to indoctrinate law students with a specific worldview” which provided the impetus of what would become the “Teneo Network”:
Baehr established Teneo in 2008 to gather up the best and the brightest Christian conservatives into an online and offline social network. According to their form 990, their exempt purpose is continuing education, [2014]…
Before it was deleted, “the public Google Group for one satellite -- TeneoDC -- served as a network for the A-list of DC millennial conservatives. For this group, the Federalist Society served as the hub, and they were the spokes.
Teneo DC Membership - Elites Galore!”9 [Emphasis added RJR]
How The Theocratic Right Wing Will Reshape The Courts Under Trump
III. Where: The Teneo Network is spread throughout the country, it has its highest visibility online with its association as an advisory board member of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025.
Below is a screen shot of a press release published by the Heritage Foundation announcing the formation of the Project 2025 advisory board; at that time the number of conservative organizations that signed on to advance and support Project 2025 was twenty-one (21) total:
2025 Presidential Transition Project Forms Advisory Board With Leading Conservative Partners, January 24, 2022 10
One year later on January 31, 2023 the Heritage Foundation published a commentary authored by Spencer Chretien Associate Director, 2025 Presidential Transition Project, (AKA—Project 2025) at The Heritage Foundation. It is here in this commentary that Chretien asserts the following increased number of advisory board members, a remarkable doubling from 21 to 45+ organizations:
This new vigor of the right can be found at Project 2025. Organized by the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 has brought together 45 (and counting) right-of-center organizations that are ready to get into the business of restoring this country through the combination of the right policies and well-trained people. The Project’s foundation is built on four interconnected pillars.11 [Emphasis added RJR]
At this point in time, January 2023, Teneo still was not listed with project 2025; October 10, 2023 the Heritage Foundation issued another press release announcing that “Project 2025 Reaches 75 Coalition Partners, Continues to Grow in Preparation for Next Conservative President”.
Teneo Network is included in the published list of seventy-five (75) advisory board organizations.
While the above information singles out the Teneo Network’s most visible presences, albeit online which, as will be discussed in further writing, is in all likelihood the top-tier tool for the efforts of either conservative or liberal ideologies; the supra-majority of the network’s efforts and agents in place are, again, spread throughout personnel all across the country.
Section V below provides some indications of objective position data of some known members holding professional placements within various government jobs. It is actually an interesting study that should be undertaken ASAP.
IV. Why: “to advance a worldview and thereby change a culture.”
Again, the best place to understand why the Teneo Network exists is with their own public facing statements, the passage below is taken from the Teneo Community Vision document; the following was selected because it demonstrates a deviation from MAGA-Republican incompetent unprofessionalism and in what appears to be an essentially negative evaluation of mainstream conservatism; there also appears to be a strong libertarian drive to this sub-polity whose evolving ethos and elevating entrances into the environs of Higher-government spheres is decidedly and intentionally an intersection of politics and technology; it is no wonder that Silicon Valley OG is home to many allies and parties interested in the Teneo members who constitute a significant number of highly and well-placed public servants acting as public professionals by and largely within the Judicial systems, both State and Federal, and also in any number of other influential positions.
To wit:
The modern conservative movement—including leading think tanks, cable news, foundations, print media outlets, and the Republican Party—generally pursues five strategies:
Focus on content…rarely pays attention to the networks that carry that content forward.
Distribute that content virtually through mail and the Internet. The movement shares that content widely without face-to-face gatherings where people can connect.
Communicate with a posture of certainty. At times, the conservative movement can verge on the didactic instead of maintaining a posture of engagement.
Engage a mass, grassroots audience. The focus is not on influencing the influential, but on energizing the grassroots.
Drive policy solutions. Instead of cultivating cultural solutions, conservatives focus on the next legislative or judicial fight. Conservatives love to say that culture is upstream of politics, but investments in culture have been scarce on the ground.
The theory and history of cultural change suggest that these strategies are fundamentally flawed. In fact, in many cases we think organizations in the movement are pursuing the exact opposite of what we know drives renewal. In the following chapters, we will examine these strategies, illustrate alternative approaches, and invite you to explore how we can build a more effective movement together.12 page 10. [Emphasis added RJR]
The Teneo Community Vision document is actually a well written collaborative work. I think that a quote, below, carried forward within the document describes the organization in the way that it should best be understood and consequently reevaluated, as a piece of writing, recognizing that as an objective researcher it is important to understand it accurately in order to acquire and possess any credibility as an interested party who seeks to quench the fires that are slowly simmering and smoldering beneath the American public’s surface.
“Often the biggest changes in history are the achievements of thinly documented, informally organized groups.”
Niall Ferguson, Historian and bestselling author
V. Who: The super-majority of the Teneo Network’s members are still unidentified and unknown; the names of those who have been publicly identified are scattered in different sources throughout the internet. A comprehensive section concisely discussing the who factor of this little known group is not practical for this brief survey.
However the organization Accountable.US maintains a website known as Monitoring Influence that hosts a short list and other information about the Teneo Network along with links to other excellent resources.
The Teneo Network has not disclosed the names of its members. However, known Teneans include:
J.D. Vance, Republican Senator from Ohio
Josh Hawley, Republican Senator from Missouri
Elise Stefanik, Republican Congresswoman from New York’s 21st District
Mike Gallagher, Republican Congressman from Wisconsin’s 8th District
Mike Hilgers, Nebraska Attorney General
Kathryn Mizelle, U.S. District Judge for the Middle District of Florida
Charlie Kirk, president of Turning Point USA
Ben Shapiro, columnist and right-wing political commentator
Peter Bisbee, executive director of the Republican Attorneys General Association
Francisco Gonzalez, member of the advisory council for Turning Point USA and former chairman of Project Veritas
Lila Ontiveros, US commercial leader at Palantir Technologies
Joseph Malchow, founding partner at Hanover Technology Investment Management
John Coleman, managing partner at Sovereign’s Capital
Paul Vronsky, partner at BOND Capital
Salen Churi, general partner at Trust Ventures 13
Monitoring Influence, About “Teneo Network” information Page
At this point in time I have collected together numerous other names and job titles/positions of Teneo Network members; I will be including identified individuals in all of my writing from this point on where and when appropriate, possible, and relevant.
I have made some truly significant connections and placements.
I suggest that everyone put their five-point restraint straps’ on and get ready to rumble this network out of its anonymity.
If you learned anything new or of interest to you or if you think someone you know whether it be an individual or a larger audience might benefit from reading my writings, then please take the time to cross-post, restack, or share this essay or any of my other writings. The more people know about what is happening with our Democracy the better are our chances of defending our freedoms and civil rights against the scourge and destitution of the MAGA-Republican movement and its defacto dictator convict-Trump.
Thank you for reading,
Robert J. Rei, Fall River, MA, July 19, 2024
"There's only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self." -Aldous Huxley
Teneo Community Vision, Evan Baehr (Foreword pg. 4), 2019, 47 pages, https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23690869/teneo-community-vision-document.pdf; Alternate source site: https://documented.net/media/teneo-community-vision-2019
See note 6 and 7.
How The Theocratic Right Wing Will Reshape The Courts Under Trump, Karoli Kuns, June 6, 2014, Crooks and Liars, https://crooksandliars.com/2014/06/how-blackstone-fellowships-build
See note 1.
Teneo (About, Beliefs) Shaping American culture, 2023, Teneo Network, https://www.teneonetwork.com/
Evan Baehr,about page, personal website, web-archived/cached copy, February 14, 2020, Archive Org, https://web.archive.org/web/20200214164726/http://www.evanbaehr.com/about-me
See note 2.
2025 Presidential Transition Project Forms Advisory Board With Leading Conservative Partners, Press Release, June 24, 2022, The Heritage Foundation, https://www.heritage.org/press/2025-presidential-transition-project-forms-advisory-board-leading-conservative-partners
Project 2025, Spencer Chretien, January 31, 2023, The Heritage Foundation, https://www.heritage.org/conservatism/commentary/project-2025
See note 1.
Teneo Network, Monitoring Influence, 2024, https://www.monitoringinfluence.org/org/teneo-network/
Nice work, Robert. Your excavation of obscure “conservative” groups dedicated to a takedown of the Constitution and creation of a theocratic form of government is much appreciated. Dragging them into daylight is the first step.
Thank you, Robert, for your extensive research. We’ll all have our advanced degrees in politics and the hidden plot to subvert democracy. Transparency is key to understanding. Keep up your great work.