Robert J. Shapiro is the chairman of Sonecon, LLC, a private firm that advises U.S. and foreign businesses, governments and non-profit organizations. Dr. Shapiro has advised, among others, President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Tony Blair; private firms including Amgen, AT&T, Google, Gilead Sciences, Exxon-Mobil, MCI, NASDAQ, SLM Corporation, Nordstjernan of Sweden, and Fujitsu of Japan; and non-profit organizations including the American Public Transportation Association, the Education Finance Council, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Progressive Policy Institute, co-chair of the Argentina Task Force America, director of the Globalization Initiative of the New Democrat Network, and a board member of the Axson-Johnson Foundation in Sweden.
From 1997 to 2001, Dr. Shapiro was U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs. In that position, he directed economic policy for the Commerce Department and oversaw the Nation's major statistical agencies, including the Census Bureau while it planned and carried out the 2000 decennial census. Prior to his appointment as Under Secretary, he was co-founder and Vice President of the Progressive Policy Institute and the Progressive Foundation. He was the principal economic advisor to Governor William Clinton in his 1991-1992 presidential campaign and senior economic advisor to Vice President Albert Gore and Senator John Kerry in their presidential campaigns. Dr. Shapiro also served as Legislative Director for Senator Daniel P. Moynihan, Associate Editor of U.S. News & World Report, and economic columnist for Slate. He has been a Fellow of Harvard University, the Brookings Institution, and the National Bureau of Economic Research. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. from Harvard University, a M.Sc. from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and an A.B. from the University of Chicago.
