After stints at several Fortune 100 companies, Bennett retired in September 2015 as executive vice president, chief legal officer and corporate secretary of USAA.
[1] In 1996, President Bill Clinton appointed Bennett as a member and, later, as Vice Chairman of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars within the Smithsonian Institution.
[citation needed] He is married to Elaine Melotti Schmidt and they have an extensive art collection of works by women figurative realist painters.
The Bennett Collection is composed of historic works including pieces by Mary Cassatt, Artemisia Gentileschi,[12] Elaine de Kooning, Sarah Miriam Peale, Agnes Martin, and Suzanne Valadon.
Among the living artists represented in the collection are major works by Julie Bell, Margaret Bowland, Zoey Frank, Xenia Hausner, Andrea Kowch, Katie O’Hagan, Harmonia Rosales, Alyssa Monks, SuSu, and Kathrin Longhurst,[13] among others.