PROFILE: Larry Summers - Obama's chief economic advisor

By Chris Cermak Nov 24, 2008, 18:38 GMT

Washington - Larry Summers, a former Treasury secretary and president of Harvard University, brings a great deal of clout to the economic team of president-elect Barack Obama, but is not without controversy.

Summers, 53, was named director of the White House National Economic Council (NEC) on Monday, making him Obama's chief economic advisor. The NEC, created in 1993, coordinates economic policy across the various government departments including the Treasury, labour, housing and health.

Summers will likely have a broad role in crafting tax and fiscal policy when the Obama administration takes over January 20. The Treasury, to be led by Timothy Geithner, will keep its central role in managing the financial crisis at the heart of the current economic downturn.

Serving as Treasury secretary in the final years of former president Bill Clinton, Summers left behind a robust US economy and a budget surplus. Before gaining the top post in 1999, Summers directed international policy at the Treasury and spearheaded the US response to the Asian financial crisis of 1997.

Summers is a long-time academic who worked as the World Bank's chief economist between 1991 and 1993. He is known for his pragmatism, vast intellect and strong opinions.

But those opinions got him into trouble earlier this decade, when he was forced to resign in 2006 as president of Harvard University over comments viewed as demeaning to women.

US media speculated that his outspoken nature may have cost him the more public role of Treasury secretary in Obama's administration.

Summers has a bachelor's degree in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a doctorate from Harvard. In 1983, aged 28, he became one of the youngest-ever tenured professors at Harvard.