Who is Larry Summers? About disgraced ex-OpenAI board member and Harvard president's net worth, career, family

Former US Treasury Secretary and Harvard University President Larry Summers has resigned from OpenAI's board, after Jeffrey Epstein's emails indicated the economist remained friends with the sex offender long after his conviction in 2008.

The emails were released among documents from Jeffrey Epstein's estate by the US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. They showed that Summers and Epstein discussed the public attitudes to sexual harassment allegations, among other things. For the period between 2018-19, the two also discussed Summers' romantic pursuit of a “mentee”, while he was married.

Summers, in his statement on 17 November, said he is “deeply ashamed” of continuing communication with Epstein, adding, “I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein.”

Who is Larry Summers?

Summers is a former United States Treasury Secretary (from 1999 to 2001 under President Clinton), the former president of Harvard University (from 2001 to 2006), and a former paid contributor to Bloomberg TV.

Notably, Summers left his Harvard role following comments made in 2005, when he said that innate differences in sex kept women from flourishing in math and science careers. The statement caused an uproar, after which he apologised and resigned in 2006.

He joined the OpenAI board in November 2023 during the bid to bring back CEO Sam Altman to the company after previous board members fired the founder, the reports added. According to Bloomberg, once on the ChatGPT maker's board, Summers undertook an internal review of Sam Altman’s firing. It added that Summers was a “marquee” addition to OpenAI’s restructured board due to his deep ties to Wall Street and Washington, DC.

He is at present a professor and a director at Harvard's Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government.

Meanwhile, AP reported that the Center for American Progress (CAP) on 18 November said that Summers was no longer associated with the think-tank and was “ending his fellowship at CAP”.

A spokesperson for the Budget Lab at Yale also told AP that Summers is no longer a member of the organization's advisory group.

Larry Summers family: Childhood, wife and children

According to a Politico report, Summers was considered a genius child for his excellent memory at six years of age. His parents were both economics professors at the University of Pennsylvania, and his uncles, Paul Samuelson and Ken Arrow, are listed among the greatest minds in 20th century economics, having each won Nobel Prizes for their work.

He attended college at MIT and graduated from Harvard, under renowned conservative economist Martin Feldstein. At age 28, he became one of the youngest tenured professors in Harvard’s history. In his career, he has also worked with the World Bank, and the Clinton administration's Treasury department.

Summers married Harvard University English professor and literary TV show host Elisa New in 2005. The emails, which includes discussions of an alleged affair, also caused upset among the public.

According to a Hindustan Times report, Elisa New is a Powell M Cabot Professor of American Literature at Harvard University. She is also known for hosting the PBS series Poetry in America.

The couple have six children — three from Summers' previous marriage (twin daughters Pamela and Ruth, and son Harry), and three from New's previous marriage (daughters Yael, Orli, and Maya).

Larry Summers: Achievements and net worth

As of July 2025, websites have calculated Summers' net worth to be around $40 million from his career in finance and economics. His assets are primarily from real estate holdings an investment funds, as per a Cine Network report.

He owns a $2 million house in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it added. In terms of yearly income, the site estimated Summers earns approximately $5 million annually from his academic salary, speeches and consulting work, besides business ventures and investments.

(With inputs from Agencies)