Doug Elmendorf Named Director of The Hamilton Project at Brookings

Editor’s note: In January 2009, Douglas Elmendorf became director of the Congressional Budget Office.

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Economist Doug Elmendorf, a Brookings senior fellow and the Edward M. Bernstein Scholar, has been appointed director of the Hamilton Project, replacing Jason Furman. Furman, the newly appointed director of Economic Policy for the Obama Presidential Campaign, has resigned from the Hamilton Project and is on leave from the Brookings Institution.

The Hamilton Project, launched in April 2006, is a policy initiative at Brookings that generates new ideas for promoting broad-based economic growth. A distinguished Advisory Council, that includes former U.S. Treasury secretaries Robert E. Rubin and Lawrence H. Summers, contributes to the project’s work.

“This is the right time and the right place to produce first-class policy proposals to put the economy back on track for more Americans,” Elmendorf said.

Prior to joining Brookings last year, Elmendorf served in senior roles within the Federal Reserve Board, the White House Council of Economic Advisors and the Treasury Department, as well as a faculty post at Harvard University. In addition to his work with the Hamilton Project, Elmendorf will continue to serve as co-editor of the prestigious Brookings Papers on Economic Activity. He earned his PhD and AM in economics from Harvard University, where he was a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow, and his AB summa cum laude from Princeton University.

“Doug combines academic excellence with practical thinking,” commented William G. Gale, Brookings vice president and director of Economic Studies. “I am confident that he will continue to lead the Hamilton Project in producing rigorous and pragmatic policy proposals for the benefit of our country’s domestic economic agenda.”

“Doug has been an invaluable member of the Hamilton Project team and we are delighted that he has agreed to guide the future work of the project,” said Rubin. “The Hamilton Project’s Advisory Council has tremendous confidence in Doug, both as a gifted scholar and an accomplished leader in the policy community.” Rubin also noted, “We are grateful to Jason for his significant contributions to the project and wish him the best in his new endeavor.”

At the same time, Karen Anderson was promoted to Managing Director of the Hamilton Project and will help Elmendorf implement the work of the organization. Rubin added, “Karen has been a tremendous asset to the Hamilton Project since she joined two years ago and this promotion acknowledges her many contributions to the project’s success.”

Elmendorf is the third director of the Hamilton Project. The founding director, Peter R. Orszag, left in January 2007 to become the director of the Congressional Budget Office and was succeeded by Jason Furman.

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