Lawrence Summers Biography

Lawrence “Larry” Summers is the controversial economist and professor who became a prominent part of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal in 2025.

Larry Summers grew up in Pennsylvania and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1975) in economics. He earned a PhD from Harvard University (1982) and became a tenured professor there when he was just 28 years old. Summers became a member of President Ronald Reagan‘s economic team (1982-83) and served as undersecretary and then Secretary of the Treasury in the administration of President Bill Clinton (1995-99). In the next century he became director of the National Economic Council and a top advisor to President Barack Obama on economic policies from 2009-11.

Known to be as blunt as he is smart, Summers is famous less for his economic theories than for his controversial tenure as the president of Harvard University, a post he held from 2001 until he resigned in 2006. During his time there he caused a ruckus by questioning the scholarly integrity of African-American studies professor Cornel West and, more significantly, by provoking debate in 2005 about innate differences between men and women when it comes to math and science. (Summers suggested that women might not have the chops for math that men did.)

Having clashed with much of Harvard’s faculty, Summers resigned as the school’s president in 2006. He took a year off and then returned as a professor of economics at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. An advisor to Obama’s presidential campaign, Summers was named Director of the National Economic Council in 2009 and (along with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner) played a major role in economic policies for the Obama administration.

Most controversially of all, Larry Summers was back in the news in 2025 after U.S. House Oversight Committee ordered the release of thousands of documents from the Jeffrey Epstein estate. Epstein has pled guilty to solicitation of prostitution with a minor in 2008; included in the 2025 release were emails between Summers and Epstein from 2018-2019 in which Summers described, in chummy and embarrassing words, his attempts to date one of his female grad students.

Summers announced on November 17, 2025 that “While continuing to fulfill my teaching obligations, I will be stepping back from public commitments as one part of my broader effort to rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me.” He also said “I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused.” However, Summers said he would continue to teach at Harvard.