Short answers, pulled from the story.
Beau Willimon is an American playwright and screenwriter born on the 26th of October 1977 in Alexandria, Virginia. He is best known for creating and running House of Cards on Netflix for its first four seasons, and for writing the play Farragut North, which became the film The Ides of March.
Willimon worked as a volunteer and intern on Charles Schumer's 1998 Senate campaign while an undergraduate at Columbia. He went on to work on Hillary Clinton's 2000 Senate campaign, Bill Bradley's 2000 presidential campaign, and Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign.
Farragut North is a play by Willimon inspired by his work as a press aide on Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign. It premiered off Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company in fall 2008, starring John Gallagher Jr., Chris Noth, and Olivia Thirlby. A Los Angeles production followed with Chris Pine in the lead role.
The Ides of March was a 2011 film adaptation of Willimon's play Farragut North. George Clooney directed the film and co-wrote the screenplay with Willimon and Grant Heslov. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and four Golden Globe Awards, including Best Picture in the Drama category.
Willimon had already stepped down as showrunner in January 2016, before Netflix fired Spacey on the 3rd of November 2017 following misconduct allegations. Three House of Cards crew members disputed Willimon's public claim that he had no knowledge of Spacey's behavior, alleging in a BuzzFeed News article that he had been aware of an incident in the show's first season.
Willimon was elected WGA-E President in September 2017 and re-elected in 2019, both times unopposed. In 2019 he oversaw the negotiating committee for the WGA-Agency Agreement and joined other guild members in firing their agents as part of a dispute with the Association of Talent Agents over packaging practices.