Welcoming Larry Summers to Premise’s Board of Directors

Premise Data
3 min readJul 16, 2015

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Larry Summers

Today is a big day for us, one that’s been a long time coming and yet one I never could’ve imagined when we launched Premise almost two years ago. I’m proud to announce that Larry Summers is joining our Board of Directors.

For a number of reasons, this is a personally gratifying moment. Larry is someone whose fierce intellectual prowess I’ve admired since the spring and summer of 1998 when I was a fledgling quant analyst manning the desks during the Russian debt crisis and the subsequent Long Term Capital Management implosion. Not only is it humbling that Larry is joining the Board, it’s also validating. He’s been on the frontlines of countless critical events in our world’s economic history — and now has chosen to play an integral role in charting Premise’s future.

Building a company is hard. Building a company that’s wholly reimagining the way the world is measured from the ground up is even harder. Larry’s decision to join the Board is a sign that what we’re doing is starting to work. He joins existing Board members Chamath Palihapitiya of The Social+Capital Partnership, Karim Faris of Google Ventures, Premise co-founder Joe Reisinger, and me.

Years ago, Henry Kissinger suggested that Larry be given a post at the White House so that he could bat down, challenge and fix terrible ideas. This is what Larry does best. And this is what he’ll be holding Premise — and me — accountable for. Larry will be involved in everything from supervising and supporting the inception of new products to vetting their statistical capabilities and finally, helping to take these products to our global customers.

Larry is one of the most decorated economists of our generation. In 1993, he was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal, given to the most outstanding economist under 40 in the United States. He’s also someone who never backs down from tackling massive problems or engaging in hard conversations for causes he believes in deeply. From the Asian financial crisis to the Great Recession, Larry has been at the center of the world’s biggest fiscal policy debates for the past 30 years.

Among the many highlights of his career: Director of the National Economic Council from 2009–2010; President of Harvard University from 2001–2006; Secretary of the Treasury from 1999 to 2001; and Chief Economist at the World Bank from 1991–1993. He currently serves as President Emeritus and Charles W. Eliot Professor of Harvard University, where he’s made enormous academic contributions to the fields of macroeconomics, financial and labor economics since he first became a professor in 1983.

Additionally, Larry was one of the first people to recognize the importance of strong connective tissue between Washington and Silicon Valley. He serves as a special adviser at Andreessen Horowitz (an investor in Premise), on the Board of Lending Club, and has advisory roles at several other tech companies.

We have enormous ambitions to increase global economic transparency and measure the world in entirely new ways. With Larry on our team, we’re now one step closer.

Onwards,

David Soloff
CEO and co-founder, Premise

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Premise Data
Premise Data

Written by Premise Data

Premise is Data for Every Decision™.

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