As part of the firm’s regular webinar series, Jordan Park recently hosted its Mid-Year Investment Webinar with guests, Lawrence H. Summers, former Treasury Secretary, and Chris James, founder of Engine No.1. Larry Summers provided insights on macro-economic topics including inflation, rates and policy issues and Chris James provided his perspective from years as a hedge fund manager. Their bios are here below:

Lawrence H. Summers

Lawrence H. Summers is the Charles W. Eliot University Professor and President Emeritus of Harvard University. During the past two decades, he has served in a series of senior policy positions in Washington, D.C., including the 71st Secretary of the Treasury for President Clinton, Director of the National Economic Council for President Obama and Vice President of Development Economics and Chief Economist of the World Bank.

He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1975 and was awarded a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1982. In 1983, he became one of the youngest individuals in recent history to be named as a tenured member of the Harvard University faculty. In 1987, Mr. Summers became the first social scientist ever to receive the annual Alan T. Waterman Award of the National Science Foundation (NSF), and in 1993 he was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal, given every two years to the outstanding American economist under the age of 40.

He is currently the Charles W. Eliot University Professor at Harvard University and the Weil Director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at Harvard’s Kennedy School. He and his wife Elisa New, a professor of English at Harvard, reside in Brookline and have six children.

Chris James

Chris founded Engine No. 1 based on his vision that capitalism can be harnessed for positive change and companies that align the interests of their shareholders and stakeholders are better, stronger companies as a result. He has more than 30 years of experience investing in and building businesses across multiple industries in transition.

Previously, he cofounded Andor Capital Management, and before that, served as a member of the Management Committee of Pequot Capital Management. Early in his career, Chris was an analyst at Ethos Capital (merged into Moore Capital Management) and started his career at JGM Management. Chris received a BA in Economics from Tulane University, where he also chaired the Investment Committee. Chris is a founding board member of Tipping Point Community, an organization that fights poverty in the Bay Area.