Lawrence Summers

Lawrence Summers
Summers in 2018
8th Director of the National Economic Council
In office January 20, 2009 – January 20, 2011
President	Barack Obama
Deputy	Diana Farrell Jason Furman
Preceded by	Keith Hennessey
Succeeded by	Gene Sperling
27th President of Harvard University
In office July 1, 2001 – June 30, 2006
Preceded by	Neil Rudenstine
Succeeded by	Derek Bok
71st United States Secretary of the Treasury
In office July 2, 1999 – January 20, 2001
President	Bill Clinton
Deputy	Stuart E. Eizenstat
Preceded by	Robert Rubin
Succeeded by	Paul H. O'Neill
7th United States Deputy Secretary of the Treasury
In office August 11, 1995 – July 2, 1999
President	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Frank N. Newman
Succeeded by	Stuart E. Eizenstat
Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs
In office April 5, 1993 – August 11, 1995
President	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	David Mulford
Succeeded by	Michael Bruno
Chief Economist of the World Bank
In office January 14, 1991 – January 14, 1993
President	Barber Conable Lewis Thompson Preston
Preceded by	Stanley Fischer
Succeeded by	Michael Bruno
Personal details
Born	Lawrence Henry Summers (1954-11-30) November 30, 1954 New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Victoria Perry ​ ​ (m. 1984; div. 2003)​ Elisa New ​ (m. 2005)​
Children	3
Education	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (BS) Harvard University (MA, PhD)
Signature
Academic career
Institution	Harvard University London School of Economics
Field	Macroeconomics
School or tradition	New Keynesian economics
Doctoral advisor	Martin Feldstein
Doctoral students	Alan Krueger, Kiminori Matsuyama, James R. Hines Jr., Rhee Chang-yong
Awards	John Bates Clark Medal (1993)
Information at IDEAS / RePEc

Lawrence Henry Summers (born November 30, 1954) is an American economist and politician. He was the 71st United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1999 to 2001. He also was the director of the National Economic Council from 2009 to 2010.

Summers was the president of Harvard University from 2001 to 2006.

In November 2023, Summers joined the board of directors of artificial general intelligence company OpenAI. He resigned in November 2025 after it was revealed that Summers had a close friendship with child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Other websites

• Faculty page at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
• Lawrence Summers Archived January 4, 2010, at the Wayback Machine at Big Think
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Lawrence Summers on Charlie Rose
• Lawrence Summers collected news and commentary at The New York Times

Diplomatic posts
Preceded by Stanley Fischer	Chief Economist of the World Bank 1991–1993	Succeeded by Michael Bruno
Political offices
Preceded by David Mulford	Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs 1993–1995	Succeeded by Michael Bruno
Preceded by Frank Newman	United States Deputy Secretary of the Treasury 1995–1999	Succeeded by Stu Eizenstat
Preceded by Bob Rubin	United States Secretary of the Treasury 1999–2001	Succeeded by Paul O'Neill
Preceded by Keith Hennessey	Director of the National Economic Council 2009–2011	Succeeded by Gene Sperling
Academic offices
Preceded by Neil Rudenstine	President of Harvard University 2001–2006	Succeeded by Derek Bok
Order of Precedence of the United States of America
Preceded by Rodney E. Slater as Former US Cabinet Member	Order of precedence of the United States as Former US Cabinet Member	Succeeded by Ann Veneman as Former US Cabinet Member