Robert D. Hormats
Lecturer in Management
Robert Hormats has been a senior official in the administrations of five different American presidents, a top executive on Wall Street and major business leader working with companies in the United States and throughout the world. His most recent government job was Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment. He is currently Vice Chairman of Kissinger Associates, Inc.
Bob began his career as Senior Staff Member on the National Security Council Staff in 1969. During his tenure, he served as senior advisor to Dr. Henry Kissinger, General Brent Scowcroft, and Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski. In this capacity, he was responsible for international economic policy, global energy issues, foreign trade and investment matters and monetary/financial issues. He played a major role in the opening up of U.S. relations with China as Senior White House Economic Advisor to Dr. Kissinger during the early 1970s, the American response to the global energy cris is of the 1970s, international trade negotiations and resolving a number of financial crises involving Asia, Russia, Latin America and the U.S. He also participated in American Middle East Diplomacy in the 1970s and 1980s under Dr. Kissinger, including Shuttle Diplomacy after the 1973 Arab- Israel War.
Following his seven years on the National Security Council Staff, Bob served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative with the rank of Ambassador and Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs. In those capacities, he was a leading U.S. governmental official on global trade and investment negotiations, represented the U.S. as the President’s advisor and Summit planner (“Sherpa”) at six Group of Seven Economic Summits, was U.S. co -chair of Bilateral Commissions with India, China, the EU and Brazil.
In 1982, Bob joined Goldman Sachs where he started out as a Vice President, moved up to Managing Director and ultimately became Vice Chairman Goldman Sachs (International). In these positions, over a 25 year career at the firm , he played a key role on a variety of international economic and financial matters , including privatizations of state enterprises in countries such as China, Singapore, Britain, Germany and Mexico. He also was part of Goldman Sachs teams that structured and underwrote bond and stock issues in the U.S. and abroad. He also was the firm’s leading spokesman regarding the international economic and financial outlook and d evelopments in key financial and investment markets.
In 2009, Bob was asked by Secretary Clinton to become Under Secretary of State for Economic and Energy Affairs. In time his job expanded. Following a restructuring of the Department, he became Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment. In this capacity he was the Secretary’s senior advisor in these areas. He also was responsible for leading the efforts of the State Department in the planning of G-8 and G - 20 Economic Summits as well as high level bilateral economic negotiations with China, Japan, India, Russia, Brazil, the EU, South Africa and various other countries.
Bob accompanied President Obama and Secretary Clinton on several Summits and high level economic visits to these countries and others. He also led U.S. Government and U.S. business delegations to these countries and to international groups such as ASEAN , APEC, the St. Petersburg Global Forum and the Brussels Global Forum. One of his major roles also was to plan and implement Secretary Clinton’s “Economic Statecraft” policy to support American business and exports abroad, focusing on areas such as reducing barriers to investment and imports, intellectual property protection, protection of trade secrets and ensuring a level playing field vis a vis foreign enterprises.
In 2013, Bob became Vice Chairman of Kissinger Associates, the New York based strategic international consulting firm that assesses and navigates emerging market geopolitical and macroeconomic risk for its clients. Bob has extensive exper ience on matters related to China, Western Europe, Japan, South Korea, India, Russia, the Middle East and South East Asia. His substantive areas of expertise include international trade and investment, intellectual property protection, foreign investment in the U.S., U.S. investment abroad, protection of trade secrets, and global energy issues.
Bob has been a Visiting Lecturer at Princeton University. He is currently lecturing regularly at Yale University’s School of Management and recently was a Pacific Leadership Fellow at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego. He is also Chairman of the Board of the RAND Center for Asia and Pacific Policy. For several years Bob was a member of the Secretary of Defense’s high level Defense Policy Board by Secretary of Defense Ash Carter. He is member of the Board of Directors of the American Tower Corporation and Grace Therapeutics.
In the past , Bob has served on the Board of Visitors of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and the Dean’s Council of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. He is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Economic Club of New York.
Bob has been awarded the French Legion of Honor by the President of France and the Commanders Cross of the Order of Merit by the President of Germany.
Bob appears as a regular guest on CNBC, Bloomberg , CNN and Fox. His publications include The Price of Liberty: Paying for America’s Wars from the Revolution to the War on Terror; Abraham Lincoln and the Global Economy; and Reforming the International Monetary System.
Bob earned a BA from Tufts University in 1965, an MA in 1966 and a PhD in 1970 in International Economics from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts.
Education
- PhD, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts, 1970