C. Fred Bergsten, senior fellow and director emeritus, was the founding director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics (formerly the Institute for International Economics) from 1981 through 2012. He is a member of the President’s Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations, a member of the Advisory Committee to the Export-Import Bank, and co-chairman of the Private Sector Advisory Group to the United States-India Trade Policy Forum, comprising the trade ministers of those two countries. He has also been chairman of the "Shadow G-8," which advises the G-8 countries on their annual summit meetings, and co-chairman (with German Deputy Finance Minister Caio Koch-Weser) of the Trans-Atlantic Strategy Group created by the Bertelsmann Foundation.
He was chairman of the Competitiveness Policy Council, which was created by Congress, throughout its existence from 1991 to 1995 and chairman of the APEC Eminent Persons Group throughout its existence from 1993 to 1995. He was assistant secretary for international affairs of the US Treasury (1977-81); assistant for international economic affairs to the National Security Council (1969-71); and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (1972-76), the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1981), and the Council on Foreign Relations (1967-68).
Dr. Bergsten has authored, co-authored or edited forty books on international economic issues including most recently The Long-Term International Economic Position of the United States (2009, selected a “must read” by The Washington Post), China’s Rise: Challenges and Opportunities (2008), China, The Balance Sheet: What the World Needs to Know Now About The Emerging Superpower (2006), The United States and the World Economy: Foreign Economic Policy for the Next Decade (2005), Dollar Adjustment: How Far? Against What? (2004), Dollar Overvaluation and the World Economy (2003), No More Bashing: Building a New Japan-United States Economic Relationship (2001), and The Dilemmas of the Dollar (2d ed, 1996).
He received his B.A. from Central Methodist University in 1961 and his M.A. (1962), M.A.L.D. (1963) and Ph.D. (1969) from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.