Biography
Ted Kaufman was born on March 15, 1939, in Philadelphia, PA, to Helen Carroll and Manuel Kaufman.
He graduated from Duke University with a BS degree in mechanical engineering, and then earned an MBA degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Ted moved to Delaware in 1966 to work for the DuPont Company. It was during this time that he first became involved in Delaware politics, working on various campaigns.
In 1972, Ted joined Joe Biden’s long-shot U.S. Senate campaign on a volunteer basis. After Biden's surprise victory in 1973, he took a one-year leave of absence from DuPont to organize and head Senator Biden's Delaware office. In 1976 he became Biden's Chief of Staff/Administrative Assistant and served until 1995.
Since 1991, Ted has taught a course on "The Congress" as a Senior Lecturing Fellow at the Duke Law School for Law and Sanford Public Policy students. For over 10 years he also taught a course entitled "Government, Business, and Public Policy in the Global Economy" for students from the Duke Law School and Duke's Fuqua Graduate School of Business.
From 1995 to 1999 he was Co-Chair of the Duke Law School Center for the Study of the Congress.
From 1995 until 2008, Ted was a Board member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which is the independent, autonomous, federal entity responsible for all U.S. government and government sponsored non-military international broadcasting. One of Ted's primary interests while on the BBG was expanding the freedom of the press around the world, a battle he will continue in the Senate. He was appointed to the BBG by the Presidents Clinton and Bush and was confirmed by the US Senate for four terms.
Since leaving the Senate, Ted has remained a close friend of Vice President Joe Biden and has advised him on every one of his 10 federal campaigns. During the Obama/Biden campaign for President he was head of the VP Office transition planning. After Barack Obama and Joe Biden were elected on November 4, 2008, Ted was named co-chair of the Vice Presidential Transition Team and was a member of the Advisory Board of the Obama-Biden Transition Project.
He was a member of the Board of Directors of Children and Families First, WHYY, and the Board of Trustees of Christiana Care.
Ted and his wife, Lynne, have been married since 1960 and reside in Wilmington. They have three daughters, Kelly, Murry, and Meg, and 7 grandchildren.