Jim DeMint will leave the U.S. Senate next year to become president of The Heritage Foundation, succeeding Edwin J. Feulner, the man who first envisioned the think tank in 1973 and has led it as president for the past 36 years.

These photos were taken at a Heritage staff meeting on December 6. Heritage Board of Trustees Chairman Thomas A. Saunders and former Attorney General Edwin Meese III also spoke at the meeting. Meese is the Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow in Public Policy and chairman of Heritage’s Center for Legal and Judicial Studies.

Photos courtesy of Shealah Craighead.