Economic Development

Global Economic Recovery: The Path Forward

July 21, 2022  • Aspen Community Programs

In collaboration with the Aspen Security Forum and Aspen Economic Strategy Group

Featuring Zoë Baird, CEO and President, Markle Foundation; Penny Pritzker, former US Secretary of Commerce; Lawrence H. Summers, former US Secretary of the Treasury; and Robert Zoellick, former US Deputy Secretary of State and US Trade Representative.


Zoë Baird is CEO and President of the Markle Foundation, which develops policies that drive the growth of middle-class careers as emerging technologies are commercialized. It also operates the Rework America Alliance so today’s labor market works for all. Previously, Baird was SVP/General Counsel, Aetna; Counselor/Staff Executive, GE; Partner, O’Melveny & Myers; and Associate Counsel to President Carter. Baird is on President Biden’s National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee; the Aspen Strategy Group; and a Senior Trustee, Brookings Institution. She served on many government advisory boards including PFIAB, and holds an A.B. and J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Penny Pritzker is the founder and Chairman of PSP Partners and its affiliates, Pritzker Realty Group, PSP Capital and PSP Growth. From June 2013 through January 2017, she served as U.S. Secretary of Commerce in the Obama Administration. Ms. Pritzker is an entrepreneur, civic leader, and philanthropist, with more than 30 years of experience in numerous industries.  In addition to her work at PSP Partners, Ms. Pritzker launched a number of other businesses over the course of her career, which included founding Vi Senior Living (formerly known as Classic Residence by Hyatt), and co-founding The Parking Spot, Artemis Real Estate Partners and Inspired Capital Partners. Ms. Pritzker is the former executive chairman of the board of TransUnion and is a past board member of Hyatt Hotels Corporation, Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, Marmon Group, and LaSalle Bank Corporation. Ms. Pritzker is also a member of the boards of Microsoft and Icertis, chairman of the board of trustees of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, cofounder and board chair of Chicago-based civic-tech organization P33, a member of the Harvard Corporation, President Biden’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, Aspen Strategy Group, Aspen Economic Strategy Group and the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum Advisory Council.  Ms. Pritzker was formerly a member of the board of the Council on Foreign Relations, the board of trustees of Stanford University, the Harvard University Board of Overseers and founded Skills for America’s Future. Ms. Pritzker also served on President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness and his Economic Recovery Advisory Board.Ms. Pritzker earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Harvard University and a Juris Doctor and Master’s of Business Administration from Stanford University. Ms. Pritzker and her husband, Dr. Bryan Traubert, co-founded the Pritzker Traubert Foundation, a private philanthropic foundation that works to foster increased economic opportunity for Chicago’s families. To learn more about the Pritzker Traubert Foundation, visit www.ptfound.org.

Lawrence H. Summers is the Charles W. Eliot University Professor and President Emeritus of Harvard University. During the past two decades, he has served in a series of senior policy positions in Washington, D.C., including the 71st Secretary of the Treasury for President Clinton, Director of the National Economic Council for President Obama and Vice President of Development Economics and Chief Economist of the World Bank. He received a bachelor of science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1975 and was awarded a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1982. In 1983, he became one of the youngest individuals in recent history to be named as a tenured member of the Harvard University faculty. In 1987, Mr. Summers became the first social scientist ever to receive the annual Alan T. Waterman Award of the National Science Foundation (NSF), and in 1993 he was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal, given every two years to the outstanding American economist under the age of 40. He is currently the Charles W. Eliot University Professor at Harvard University and the Weil Director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at Harvard’s Kennedy School. He and his wife Elisa New, a professor of English at Harvard, reside in Brookline and have six children.

Robert B. Zoellick is Senior Counselor at Brunswick Geopolitical, an advisory service of Brunswick Group, and a Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.  In addition, Zoellick serves on the boards of Temasek, Singapore’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, Robinhood, and chairs the International Advisory Council of Standard Chartered Bank, and is on the Strategic Council of Swiss Re.  He is a member of the boards of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and the Carnegie Endowment, chairs the Global Tiger Initiative, and is a member of the Global Leadership Council of Mercy Corps, a global humanitarian agency. Zoellick was the President of the World Bank Group from 2007-12, U.S. Trade Representative from 2001 to 2005, and Deputy Secretary of State from 2005 to 2006. From 1985 to 1993, Zoellick served as Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury and Under Secretary of State, as well as White House Deputy Chief of Staff.  He published his book, “America in the World: A History of US Diplomacy and Foreign Policy” in August 2020.


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