Robert Pozen

Robert Pozen is the John Olin visiting professor at Harvard University, teaching graduate courses in law and business on corporate governance and financial institutions. He also serves in the administration of Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney first as Chief of Commerce and Labor and now as Secretary of economic Affairs. In January 2002, he published the second edition of The Mutual Fund Business, the only textbook on this subject. His other publications include three books, guest editorials in leading newspapers, as well as numerous articles on domestic and international finance. He has been a speaker at many conferences in the United States and overseas. Bob served on President Bush's Commission to Strengthen Social Security, which published a lengthy report in January of 2002.

Bob Pozen was formerly vice chairman of Fidelity Investments and president of Fidelity Management & Research Company, the investment advisor to the Fidelity mutual funds. During Bob's tenure from 1997 through 2001, the assets of the Fidelity funds rose from $500 billion to $900 billion, making Fidelity Investments the largest U.S. mutual fund company and one of the leading providers of financial services in the world.

From 1987 to 1996, Bob served as managing director and general counsel of Fidelity Investments, responsible for its government relations, legislation and litigation worldwide. In that role, he created Fidelity's Charitable Gift Fund and launched Fidelity's entry into the Japanese mutual fund business.  He also served as a director of Fidelity's credit card bank, its life insurance company and its Canadian investment management business.

Before joining Fidelity, Bob was a partner at the Washington, D.C., law firm of Caplin & Drysdale, where he was in charge of the banking/securities department, from 1981 to 1986.  Prior to that, Bob served as associate general counsel to the Securities and Exchange Commission from 1978 to 1980, and was a law professor at New York University from 1974 through 1977. Bob also was an adjunct lecturer at Harvard Law School and a visiting professor at Georgetown University.

Born in 1946, Bob earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College in 1968. He graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa and was awarded a Knox Traveling Fellowship.  In 1972 and 1973, Bob received a law degree as well as a J.S.D. for a book on law and economic development from Yale Law School, where he served on the editorial board of the Yale Law Journal.

Bob serves on many boards and committees in the financial area, including the Board of Trustees of the Conference Board, the International Advisory Committee of the New York Stock Exchange, and NASDAQ's Institutional Advisory Committee. He also is involved in a number of community and civic organizations such as the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, the Boston Public Library Foundation, and the Pro Arte Chamber Music Orchestra.  He was recently appointed as a trustee of The American Academy in Berlin and The Commonwealth Fund, a foundation in the health care area.

Bob lives in Newton with his wife Liz, a psychotherapist and painter. They have two children, both of whom attended Yale College.