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Berkeley professors help with presidential transition

| 07 November 2008

UC Berkeley professors Laura Tyson and Robert Reich have been named to President-elect Barack Obama's advisory board for economics, and Chris Edley, dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law, joins about a dozen people on an advisory board that will work with Obama's formal transition team.

Chris Edley Laura Tyson Robert Reich
Chris Edley Laura Tyson Robert Reich

Tyson, a former dean of the Haas School of Business and of the London Business School, is a professor of business and public policy at the Haas School. She chaired the Presidents' Council of Economic Advisors and the National Economic Council in the Clinton administration. She also has been mentioned as a possible Obama nominee for U.S. treasury secretary.

Reich, former U.S. labor secretary in the Clinton administration, is a professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy and a regular contributor of commentary about economics and public policy on National Public Radio's "Marketplace" program.

Tyson and Reich join a group of big thinkers chosen by Obama from finance, business and academia. That group includes former Federal Reserve Chair Paul Volcker, former treasury secretary and former Harvard University president Lawrence Summers, Google's chief executive Eric Schmidt, billionaire Warren Buffett, and others.

Tyson and Reich appeared with others in the economics advisory group alongside Obama during his first news conference, held today (Friday, Nov. 7) in Chicago. Obama and his economic advisors will be meeting to discuss policies to deal with the ongoing financial crisis.

Edley served as special counsel in the Clinton administration and is a national leader in civil rights and public policy.

More information about the public service roles of some of UC Berkeley's economists and other scholars during this time of financial crisis was published previously by the Berkeleyan.