Robert Pozen Named Brookings Nonresident Senior Fellow; Lee Sachs Joins Brookings as Guest Scholar

Robert C. Pozen, a finance expert and author, and Lee Sachs, former counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, have joined Brookings as a nonresident senior fellow and guest scholar, respectively, Brookings President Strobe Talbott announced today. They join the Economic Studies program at Brookings and will focus on the governmental responses to the economic crisis, proposals for reforming financial regulation and alternative approaches to retirement security.

“We are delighted to welcome Bob and Lee to Brookings given their unique and first-hand experiences in both the financial sector and their roles as policymakers on the front lines,” said Karen Dynan, vice president and co-director of Economic Studies, and holder of the Robert S. Kerr chair. “We look forward to their perspectives and insights on the important issues facing the financial system as it continues to stabilize in the wake of the Great Recession.”

Pozen is currently chairman of MFS Investment Management, which manages over $190 billion in assets for over five million investors worldwide and also is a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School. Prior to MFS, he was vice chairman of Fidelity Investments and president of Fidelity Management & Research Company. He also served on President George W. Bush’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security, where he developed two models for closing the system’s long-term deficit.

Pozen previously served as secretary of economic affairs for Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, helping the governor close the state’s large budget gap and reorganizing its functions in business and technology, labor and workforce training, and consumer affairs. In addition, he supervised the banking and insurance departments.

He authored the first textbook comparing the regulation of banks to other financial institutions and the main textbook on the mutual fund business. His latest book is Too Big To Save? How to Fix the U.S. Financial System (Wiley, 2009). In addition to his involvement with various non-profit organizations, he is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was a member of two commissions on global competitiveness. He was chairman of the SEC advisory committee on improving financial reporting, which published its recommendations in August of 2008. He also served as associate general counsel to the Securities & Exchange Commission from 1978 to 1980 and was a law professor at Georgetown University and New York University from 1973 through 1977.

Lee Sachs joined the U.S. Department of the Treasury as counselor to Secretary Geithner in January 2009. As counselor, Sachs served as an advisor to the secretary on matters of domestic finance and global financial markets. In addition, Sachs led the Obama administration’s Financial Crisis Response Team, playing a leading role in the development and coordination of the administration’s efforts to stabilize the financial system.

Prior to joining Treasury, Sachs was a partner of Mariner Investment Group where he was Investment Committee Chairman. Sachs also served as the CEO of Cornerstone Asset Management and until 2003, vice chairman of Perseus LLC, a merchant bank and private equity fund management firm.

Sachs previously served in the Clinton administration as assistant secretary of the Treasury for financial markets. In that role he was a senior advisor to the secretary of the Treasury and chairman of the Steering Committee of the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets. Before joining the Treasury Department in 1998, Sachs was a senior managing director, head of Global Capital Markets and a member of the Board of Directors of the Bear, Stearns Companies Inc. He is a trustee of Denison University.