Elliot Gerson is the executive vice president at the Aspen Institute responsible for its Policy Programs, its Public Programs and its relations with its International Partners. The Institute’s Policy Programs focus on both domestic and international issues. They foster candid dialogue among leaders and policy experts of diverse views, advocate new policy, host leadership fellowships, and work for impact in communities, nationally, and globally.
The Institute’s public programs – including the Aspen Ideas Festival, The Aspen Security Forum, Aspen Ideas Health, Aspen Ideas: Climate, CityLab, and many smaller programs across the country and world – open the Institute’s doors to a broader audience and further both its educational goals and its promotion of ideas to lead to action.
The Institute has International Partners based in the Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Romania, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine.
He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, a US Supreme Court clerk, practiced law in government and privately, held executive positions in state and federal government and on a presidential campaign, and was president of start-ups in health care and education, and of two leading national insurance and health-care companies. He has served on many non-profit boards, especially in the arts. From 1998 to 2023, he was American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust, administering the 32 annual United States Rhodes Scholarships to the University of Oxford.
