Long active in public affairs, Robert Rubin joined the Clinton Administration in 1993 as Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and as Director of the newly-created National Economic Council. At the NEC, he coordinated economic policy recommendations to the President and monitored the implementation of the President’s economic policy goals.
In January 1995, Rubin was appointed as our nation’s 70th Secretary of the Treasury. He served for 4-1/2 years until July 1999, where he was involved in balancing the federal budget; opening trade policy to further globalization; acting to stem financial crises in Mexico, Asia and Russia; helping to resolve the impasse over the public debt limit; and guiding sensible reforms at the Internal Revenue Service.
From 1999 to 2009, Rubin served as a member of the Board of Directors at Citigroup and as a senior advisor to the company. In addition, he worked extensively with the firm’s clients around the world.
In 2006, Rubin was one of the founders of The Hamilton Project, an economic policy project housed at the Brookings Institution that offers a strategic vision and innovative policy proposals on how to create a growing economy that benefits more Americans.
Robert Rubin is the author of In An Uncertain World: Tough Choices from Wall Street to Washington, which was a New York Times bestseller as well as being named one of Business Week’s ten best business books of the year.
Rubin joined Centerview Partners in 2010 as a counselor of the firm. In his role at Centerview, he serves as a sounding board and advisor to clients across the firm’s various activities, bringing years of experience in finance and public policy. Rubin is Co-Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the Harvard Corporation, a member of the Board of Trustees of Mount Sinai Medical Center, and Chairman of the Board of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), which is the nation’s leading community development support organization with 38 offices nationwide.
Rubin graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College in 1960 with an A.B. in economics. He received a L.L.B. from Yale Law School in 1964 and attended the London School of Economics. He has received honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale, Columbia and other universities. He was born in New York City in 1938 and is married to Judith Oxenberg Rubin, who served as the New York City Commissioner of Protocol for four years under Mayor David Dinkins. The Rubins have two adult sons, James and Philip.