Alex Friedman
Alex has spent his career at the intersection of the public and private sectors in the United States and internationally. Currently, he is the Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Jackson Hole Economics, a private research company that develops actionable market intelligence for investors, policy makers, and academics.
In the philanthropic sector, Alex served as the Chief Financial Officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He was responsible for all financial matters, served on the management committee, led impact assessment, oversaw strategic planning, and managed many of the daily operating functions of the world’s largest foundation. He also created and managed the foundation’s program-related investments group, the largest impact investing philanthropic fund in the world.
In government, Alex served as a White House Fellow in the Clinton Administration and an assistant to the Secretary of Defense.
In the private sector, Alex held a number of senior executive roles in the financial industry. He was Global Chief Investment Officer of UBS, where he reshaped and managed the investment operations of the world’s largest wealth manager and chaired its investment committee, overseeing investment strategy for more than $2 trillion in assets. He was also the Chief Executive Officer of GAM Investments, a publicly listed investment management firm based in London with offices in 15 countries and approximately $150 billion in assets during his tenure.
Alex is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Chairman of the Advisory Board of Project Syndicate, and a board member of the American Alpine Club and the Jackson Hole Community Housing Trust. He also served on the boards of the Gates-Cambridge Trust at Cambridge University, the largest university scholarship program in Europe; the Seattle Art Museum; and several other non-profits. He contributes regularly to various newspapers and thought leadership groups, and has published opinion editorials on politics, economics, philanthropy, and finance in The Guardian, The Financial Times, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, The South China Morning Post, and The Chronicle of Philanthropy, among others.
He holds a JD from Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, an MBA from Columbia Business School, and a BA from Princeton University.