Lester Thurow has been a professor of management and economics at MIT for over 30 years, beginning in 1968. He was dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management from 1987 until 1993.

A 1960 graduate of Williams College, Thurow received his M.A. in 1962 on a Rhodes Scholarship at Balliol College (Oxford) and his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University in 1964. He taught at Harvard from 1966 to 1968 after a term as a staff economist on President Lyndon Johnson's Council of Economic Advisers.

In his formal academic work, he focuses on international economics, public finance, macroeconomics and income distribution economics. In addition he writes for the general public in a number of American and international newspapers. He has been featured twice on “60 minutes” and has been on the cover of Atlantic magazine.

A prolific writer, Thurow is the author of several books, three of them New York Times best sellers, aimed at a general audience.

His 1980 book, The Zero Sum Society, looked at the difficulties democratic societies face when losses must be allocated to restore economic progress.

Head to Head: The Coming Economic Battle Among Japan, Europe and America, 1992, looked at the nature of the global economic competition. It was on the New York Times best seller list for more than six months. 

His 1996 book, The Future of Capitalism looked at the forces changing the structure of the world economy.

His latest book, Building Wealth: The New Rules for Individuals, Companies, and Nations in a Knowledge-Based Economy analyzes how a knowledge-based economy works and what it takes to generate wealth in this environment.

An avid outdoorsman, Thurow’s most recent adventures range from a safari across Saudi Arabia, to hunting polar bears with a camera in the Arctic, to mountain climbing in South America and the Himalayas.

In the past Dr. Thurow has served on the Editorial Board of the New York Times, as a contributing editor for Newsweek, and as a member of Time magazine's Board of Economists. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has served as Vice President of the American Economics Association in 1993.