Lester Thurow

Professor of Management and Economics at MIT Sloan School of Management

Lester Thurow has been a professor of management and economics at MIT for more than 30 years, beginning in 1968. He was dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management from 1987 until 1993.

His formal academic work focuses on globalization, economic instability and the distribution of income and wealth. Mr. Thurow writes for the general public in a number of American and international newspapers.

A prolific writer, Thurow is the author of several books. Three of them were Head to Head: The Coming Economic Battle Among Japan, Europe and America, 1992, The Future of Capitalism, 1996 — and Building Wealth, 2000. They all became New York Times best sellers.

In the past, Dr. Thurow has served on the Editorial Board of the New York Times, as a contributing editor for Newsweek — and as a member of Time magazine’s Board of Economists.

A 1960 graduate of Williams College, Thurow received his M.A. in 1962 on a Rhodes Scholarship at Balliol College (Oxford) — and his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University in 1964. He taught at Harvard from 1966 to 1968, after a term as a staff economist on President Lyndon Johnson’s Council of Economic Advisers.

He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and served as vice president of the American Economics Association in 1993.