Hon. Joshua Gotbaum, a Scholar in Residence in the Economic Studies program, has worked in the White House and various agencies in four administrations under presidents of both parties. He chairs the Maryland Small Business Retirement Savings Board, is a trustee of the Pension Reserve Trust of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and from 2010-14 directed the U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. During the 1990s, he was Assistant Secretary of Treasury for Economic Policy and also held presidential appointments in the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Defense. Previously, he worked on White House energy and economic policy staffs.
He also has extensive experience in business and nonprofits. From 2003-5, he ran and successfully brought Hawaiian Airlines out of bankruptcy as its Chapter 11 Trustee. He was the first CEO of The September 11th Fund, a $500+ million charity that assisted more than 100,000 families, institutions, and communities. From 1981-94, he was an investment banker with Lazard, providing advice on finance, mergers, and restructuring in North America and Europe. He has been a partner in a private equity investment firm and a consultant to other investment firms. He has served as a corporate director for both public and private companies.
His work includes writing on economic policy, federal budget policy and process, public finance, and retirement and aging policies and programs. He has appeared on CNN, Fox, Bloomberg, CSPAN, and MSNBC and in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and other publications. He has testified before both houses of Congress on matters ranging from retirement plans to defense housing.
Hon. Gotbaum is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and a fellow of the National Academy of Social Insurance. He has a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and an A.B. from Stanford. In his spare time, he sings.