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Laura D. Tyson

Distinguished Professor of the Graduate School | Business & Public Policy

Laura D. Tyson Headshot

Laura D’Andrea Tyson is an influential scholar of economics and public policy and an expert on trade and competitiveness who has also served as a presidential adviser. She is a Distinguished Professor of the Graduate School at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. She chairs the Board of Trustees at UC Berkeley’s Blum Center for Developing Economies, which aims to develop solutions to global poverty.

Dr. Tyson is the former Faculty Director of the Berkeley Haas Institute for Business and Social Impact, which she launched in 2013. She served as Interim Dean of the Haas School from July to December 2018, and previously as Dean from 1998 to 2001. Dr. Tyson also held the position of Dean at London Business School from 2002 to 2006. She currently serves as a senior advisor to the Sustainable and Impact Finance Initiative at Berkeley Haas.

Dr. Tyson served as the sixteenth Chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers (1993 – 1995), the first woman to hold that position since the Council’s establishment in 1946.  Between March 1995 and December 1996, she was President Clinton’s National Economic Adviser. She was a key architect of the President’s domestic and international economic policy agenda during his first term in office.  As the Administration’s top economic adviser, Dr. Tyson managed all economic policy-making throughout the executive branch.  She also served as a member of the President’s National Security Council and Domestic Policy Council.

From 2009 to 2011, Dr. Tyson served on President Barack Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. She was a member of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness from 2011 to 2013. Between 2011 and 2013, she also served on the U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Policy Board. From 2016 to 2017, Dr. Tyson served on the President’s Council of Advisors for the Science and Technology Semiconductor Working Group. Most recently, from 2020 to 2021, she was a member of French President Emmanuel Macron’s Commission d’experts sur les grands défis économiques.

Dr. Tyson is the author of numerous reports, case studies, academic papers, and books covering topics such as automation; AI and the future of work; trade competitiveness, innovation and industrial policy; sustainable investment and climate finance; women’s rights and national economic performance; and open strategic autonomy,
industrial policy and the European economy. In addition to her scholarly work, she regularly contributes to Project Syndicate and frequently provides media commentary on U.S. and global trade, economics, high-tech competition, automation and artificial intelligence, and women’s economic empowerment.

Expertise and Research Interests

  • Future of Work
  • Disruption
  • Global Economy
  • U.S. Trade Policy
  • High-Technology Competition
  • Automation
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Women’s Economic Empowerment
  • Progressive Federalism

Papers, Articles, and Publications

Awards & Honors
  • Richard C. Holbrooke Fellowship, American Academy in Berlin, 2019
  • Club 6 Member, Haas School of Business, 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2015: Award for teaching excellence based on student recommendations
  • 2012 NACD DIRECTORSHIP 100 Most Influential People in Corporate Governance
  • University of Lausanne, Faculty of Business and Economics, 2011
Academic Background
  • Ph.D., Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, International Trade, Economic Development, Macroeconomics
  • B.A. summa cum laude, Economics, Smith College, Phi Beta Kappa, Smith College Prize for Distinguished Work in Economics