United States Department of Treasury · Public domain

Served as U.S. Treasury Secretary under Bill Clinton, helping steer the American response to Mexico's 1994 crisis and the 1997–98 Asian and Russian financial crises, then became president of Harvard University in 2001. He resigned in 2006 after a faculty no-confidence vote that followed remarks questioning women's aptitude for high-end science careers, and later directed the National Economic Council under Barack Obama. In 2025, congressional documents revealed years of correspondence between Summers and Jeffrey Epstein; he resigned his Harvard professorship in February 2026 and was banned for life by the American Economic Association.