After a peripatetic childhood and a stint as a naval officer in Vietnam, Kerry came home to Massachusetts and dedicated his life to public service: as a war protester, a district attorney, a lieutenant governor, and a U.S. senator, a seat he held for 28 years. He narrowly lost the 2004 U.S. presidential election but went on to lead the State Department from 2013 to 2017.
A version of this article appeared in the November–December 2018 issue (p.156) of Harvard Business Review.