Gary Gensler

Gary Gensler is Professor of the Practice of Global Economics and Management, MIT Sloan School of Management, Co-Director of MIT’s Fintech@CSAIL & Senior Advisor to the MIT Media Lab Digital Currency Initiative. He conducts research and teaches on blockchain technology, digital currencies, financial technology, and public policy. He won the MIT Sloan Outstanding Teacher Award based upon student nominations for the 2018-19 academic year.

Formerly Gensler was chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, leading the Obama Administration’s reform of the $400 trillion swaps market. He also was senior advisor to US Senator Paul Sarbanes in writing the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2002) and was Under Secretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance, and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during the Clinton Administration. In recognition for his service, he was awarded Treasury’s highest honor, the Alexander Hamilton Award. He is a recipient of the 2014 Frankel Fiduciary Prize.

Gensler is currently a member of the New York Fed Fintech Advisory Group and was chairman of the Maryland Financial Consumer Protection Commission (2017-2019). He has worked on various political campaigns, most recently as CFO for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, as a senior advisor to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign, and subsequently as an economic advisor for the Obama 2008 campaign.

Gensler coauthored a book presenting common sense investing advice for middle income Americans, The Great Mutual Fund Trap, (Broadway Books, 2002). He has appeared regularly on national television commenting on the economy and politics. In 2016, Politico Magazine, included him in their list of the 50 ‘Thinkers, doers and visionaries transforming American politics.’

Prior to his public service, Gensler worked at Goldman Sachs (1979-1997), having become a partner in the Mergers & Acquisition department, headed the firm’s Media Group, led fixed income & currency trading in Asia, and lastly co-headed Finance, being responsible for the firm's worldwide Controllers and Treasury efforts.

A runner, Gensler has completed nine marathons and the JFK 50-mile race. He earned his undergraduate degree in economics in 1978 and his MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania in 1979. He has three daughters, and is from Baltimore, Maryland.