Jeffrey D. Sachs is the director of the Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University. He is also Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. From 2002 to 2006, he was Director of the UN Millennium Project and Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals, the internationally agreed goals to reduce extreme poverty, disease, and hunger by the year 2015.

Sachs is internationally renowned for advising governments in Latin America, Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Asia, and Africa on economic reforms and for his work with international agencies to promote poverty reduction, disease control, and debt reduction of poor countries. He was recently named among the 100 most influential leaders in the world by Time magazine. He is author of hundreds of scholarly articles and many books. Sachs was recently elected into the Institute of Medicine and is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Prior to joining Columbia, Sachs spent over twenty years at Harvard University, most recently as director of the Centre for International Development. A native of Detroit, Michigan, Sachs received his BA, MA, and PhD degrees at Harvard University.

Combining brilliant analysis with vivid stories he leaves audiences feeling both positive and energized.