CAMBRIDGE, MA – Among the senior fellows being welcome this fall to the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government (M-RCBG) at Harvard Kennedy School are a former Special Assistant to the President at the National Economic Council and the National Security Council, and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Treasury; a former Deputy Comptroller of the Currency with a career focused on consumer financial protection; an expert in strategic consulting to boards of directors; the head of a solar energy development and investment firm and former New England Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; the Head of Climate Finance and Senior Manager on the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Change Support Team; and the former Chief of Staff in the Office of the CEO of the International Finance Corporation ("IFC").
“Senior fellows are a vital resource to our center. They bring valuable experience as practitioners, and their strong academic orientation enables them to provide significant insights. In sum, their work here enriches our understanding of the business-government relationship,” said Richard Zeckhauser, Frank Plumpton Ramsey Professor of Political Economy and chair of M-RCBG’s fellows selection committee. “We welcome these new colleagues, and look forward to their effective interaction with our faculty, our students, and others engaged with the work of the center,” said John Haigh, M-RCBG Co-Director and vlog Executive Dean.
The Senior Fellows Program is designed to strengthen the connection between theory and practice as the center examines and develops policies at the intersection of business and government. Every senior fellow is sponsored by a Harvard faculty member. During their time at M-RCBG, they undertake a substantial research project and offer a study group for students.
M-RCBG 2016-2017 Senior Fellows: Front row (L to R): Simon Winter, Prof. Richard Zeckhauser (chair of the Senior Fellows Committee), M-RCBG Co-Director Dean John Haigh, Jo Ann Barefoot, Christopher Smart. Back row (L to R): M-RCBG Executive Director Scott Leland, Anshul Krishan, Farrukh Khan, Peter Sands, Todd Baker, John DeVillars, Prof. Robert Glauber (faculty advisor).
Incoming Fellows
Todd H. Baker is currently the Managing Principal at Broadmoor Consulting, LLC, which provides strategic consulting services to boards of directors, management and shareholders of domestic and international financial services and financial technology companies at all stages of development. Baker is best known for driving strategic change in financial services organizations and his long history of leading high-profile financial services M&A and capital-raising transactions. He is also a prolific writer and speaker on financial services and FinTech topics, with a special interest in alternatives to high-cost borrowing for low-income consumers and strengthening the business models of non-bank mobile and online lenders. Before founding Broadmoor, Baker was the Managing Director and Head of Americas Corporate Development for MUFG Americas Holdings, the Americas banking operations of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) and Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy & Development for Union Bank NA, the U.S. commercial banking operation of MUFG, where at various times he led the company’s strategic planning, corporate development and performance management activities in the US and the Americas. Prior to joining Union Bank, Baker served as Executive Director of Corporate Development for TD Bank, N.A., where he was a member of the Managing Committee and had responsibility for leading Toronto-based TD Bank Financial Group’s acquisition activities in the U.S. market, and Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy & Development at Washington Mutual, Inc. where, at various times, he served on the Executive Committee and had responsibility for acquisitions & divestitures, strategic planning, investor relations, venture investing and competitive intelligence. Prior to his executive roles, Baker was a partner with the international law firms Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and Morrison & Foerster LLP, where he represented bank, non-bank financial services, technology, corporate and investment banking clients in corporate and board governance matters, mergers and acquisitions, public and private securities offerings, securitizations and compliance issues and was recognized as the leading financial services M&A and securities attorney on the West Coast. As a Senior Fellow at M-RCBG, Baker will explore alternatives to high-cost borrowing for low-income consumers with faculty sponsor Howell E. Jackson, James S. Reid, Jr. Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Email: todd_baker@hks.harvard.edu
John DeVillars is a clean energy and environmental professional with substantial leadership experience in both the public and private sectors. He is currently Chairman of BlueWave Capital LLC, a solar energy development and investment firm with $200M in utility-scale assets in North America, the Caribbean, and South Africa and a residential solar loan program offered in selected markets in the United States. DeVillars has held several executive positions in the public sector including New England Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Massachusetts Secretary of Environmental Affairs, Chief of Operations to the Governor of Massachusetts, and Chairman of the Board of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. At E.P.A. DeVillars launched a number of nationally-recognized initiatives including the establishment of the nation’s first regional Center for Environmental Industry and Technology; the Urban Environment Initiative which targeted EPA resources to address inner city health and environmental challenges; and the Clean Charles Initiative, a multi-stakeholder effort which has led to the Charles River reaching swimmable water quality standards. As the Commonwealth’s Environmental Secretary, he directed 3,500 employees and the $400 MM operating and capital budgets of five regulatory and natural resource agencies and pioneered advances in pollution prevention, air quality, wildlife protection, and market-‐based approaches to financing and regulating environmental activities. As Chairman of the MWRA Board of Directors, DeVillars was deeply involved in the six-‐billion-‐dollar cleanup of Boston Harbor, at the time the largest public works project in New England’s history. DeVillars has won numerous awards for his public service including the Nature Conservancy’s President’s Award for national environmental leadership. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of several private companies and non-profit organizations including the E.P.A.’s National Advisory Council on Environmental Policy and Technology. DeVillars is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (B.A.) and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government (M.P.A.) As a senior fellow at the Center, he will focus on the role of public utilities in meeting the climate change challenge. His faculty sponsor is Professor William Hogan, Raymond Plank Professor of Global Energy Policy and the Harvard Electricity Policy Group (HEPG) Research Director. Email: john_devillars@hks.harvard.edu
Farrukh Khan has twenty-years of international diplomatic experience as well as a sustained record of leadership and extensive expertise in sustainable development, climate change, environmental policy and energy. As Head of Climate Finance and Senior Manager on the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Change Support Team, he currently leads the work on mobilizing climate finance both from the public and private sector and investment that would lead to transition towards a low carbon resilient world. Since the 2014 Climate Summit, he has led the work on forging new and innovative partnerships and instruments that were critical to laying the foundation of the Paris Agreement adopted in December 2015. He also led the establishment of the first ever, global, multi-stakeholder initiative by the UN Secretary General on climate resilience: Anticipate, Absorb, Reshape (A2R) with strong support from the UN system, private sector, academia and civil society. In his capacity as Pakistan’s lead negotiator on climate change and sustainable development (2008-2013), he was one of the key players at the international climate negotiations since the Bali Plan of Action in 2007, at the United Nations in forging the Post 2015 Development Agenda and within South Asian region. He chaired several aspects of the International climate talks and proposed and negotiated the establishment of the United Nations Adaptation Fund (AF), the Green Climate Fund at Durban (2010) and the UNFCCC’s Standing Committee on Finance. As spokesperson of the developing world, he led the negotiations on the Rio+20 (2012) outcome “Future we want” both in the lead up to and at Rio. More specifically, he negotiated the agreement on launching Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). As a Senior Fellow, he will focus on connecting national climate action plans to financing and resilience. More specifically, Khan will analyze how international assistance can enable mobilization of domestic resources; how national plans can be translated into policies, measures that would promote financing and bankability of these plans and; how altering national regulatory and incentive structure can reshape development pathways. His faculty sponsor is Robert Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government and Director of the Harvard Environmental Economics Program. Email: farrukh_khan@hks.harvard.edu
Anshul Krishan recently served on the Management Team at the International Finance Corporation ("IFC") - the private sector arm of the World Bank Group - as Chief of Staff in the Office of the CEO. In this capacity he helped develop and was responsible for implementation of cross-cutting strategic matters across the Corporation globally. This included framing and monitoring of annual program priorities for regions and products, client coverage across business lines and overall administrative structure. He was further responsible for guiding execution across corporate functions notably finance and budget, risk, IT and HR. He also played a key role in capital markets innovation by enabling new products and greater breadth to IFC's global treasury operations. Krishan was a member of the IFC Corporate Risk Committee, Business Planning & Administration Steering Group and the World Bank Group Finance Business Committee. He joined the IFC in 2013 and was based in Washington D.C. until his departure earlier this year. Prior to his time at the IFC, Krishan was Managing Director at Goldman, Sachs & Co. where he spent almost 15 years in various capital markets and investment banking roles based in London, Hong Kong, Mumbai and Singapore. In particular, as Head of Capital Markets, Krishan played a leading role in the development of the firm's financing advisory business in South East Asia and, as Chief Operating Officer in India, he helped drive its overall advisory activity in that market. He has facilitated the raising of equity and debt capital from the public and private markets by clients and periodically served on select committees under national industry bodies and the Ministry of Finance to advance capital markets, public-private and infrastructure related financing efforts. Krishan is also a global leadership fellow of the Aspen Institute. As Senior Fellow, Krishan will drive thinking on the application of "enabling" capital as a catalyst to bridge the infrastructure financing gap; and to aid the development of economically viable investment products so that improvements in financial inclusion may be more sustainable. His faculty sponsor is Akash Deep, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy. Email: anshul_krishan@hks.harvard.edu
Christopher Smart, PhD, CFA, has spent the last six years in the Obama Administration as a senior policymaker for international economic affairs. As Special Assistant to the President at the National Economic Council and the National Security Council, he was principal advisor on trade, investment and a wide range of global economic issues. From 2009-13, he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Treasury, where he led the response to the European financial crisis and designed U.S. engagement on financial policy across Europe, Russia and Central Asia. Before entering government, Smart was Director of International Investments at Pioneer Investments where he managed top-performing Emerging Markets and International portfolios. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, he worked in Moscow, advising Russian government agencies on economic policy and financial market reform. Earlier in his career, he was a journalist in St. Petersburg, Florida and Paris, France. Smart is also the author of The Imagery of Soviet Foreign Policy and the Collapse of the Russian Empire (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1995) and numerous analytical and opinion articles. He earned a B.A. in History from Yale University and a PhD in International Relations from Columbia University. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and speaks French, Russian and some German. In Spring 2016, he was a Resident Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics, where he led a study group entitled “Money, Power and the Politics of International Financial Policy.” At M-RCBG, he will be exploring how financial market pressures have shaped the evolution of the European monetary union. His faculty sponsor is Robert Glauber, Adjunct Lecturer on Public Policy. Email: christopher_smart@hks.harvard.edu