Robert Johnson

Rob Johnson is the President of the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), which he co-founded in 2009. For 15 years Johnson has convened global initiatives with the greatest economic minds of our time, including conferences around the world, from Bretton Woods to Hong Kong; the Commission on Global Economic Transformation, in partnership with academics, business leaders, policymakers, and NGOs; the Young Scholars Initiative; new economic thinking curricula and online courses; and groundbreaking research projects that challenge economic orthodoxy. Johnson has also been an international investor and consultant to investment funds and philanthropic institutions on issues of strategy. He has served on the board of directors of both the Economic Policy Institute and the Campaign for America’s Future and serves on the external advisory council of the Julis Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy and Finance at Princeton University Previously, Johnson was a Managing Director at Soros Fund Management where he managed a global currency, bond, and equity fund specializing in emerging markets. Johnson served as Chief Economist of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee under the leadership of Chairman William Proxmire (D - Wisconsin) at the time of the 1987 stock market crash and the savings and loan crisis. Before this, he was Senior Economist of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee under the leadership of Chairman Pete Domenici (R - New Mexico). Johnson is also a documentary film producer. In 2007 he won the Oscar for best feature documentary with Director Alex Gibney for the film Taxi to the Dark Side. He received a Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University and a B.S. in both Electrical Engineering and Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.