Brian Deese

MIT Innovation Fellow

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

BRIAN DEESE is the Institute Innovation Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he focuses on U.S. economic policy, industrial capacity, clean energy, and innovation. Deese was previously Director of the White House National Economic Council, where he coordinated the economic agenda of the Biden‐Harris Administration and advised President Biden on domestic and international economic policy. Deese was President Biden’s primary policy negotiator for the infrastructure, semiconductor, and clean energy legislation passed in 2021 and 2022.

A former senior advisor to President Obama, Deese was instrumental in engineering the rescue of the U.S. auto industry and negotiating the landmark Paris Climate Agreement. During the Obama‐Biden Administration, Deese served as acting director of the Office of Management and Budget and deputy director of the National Economic Council.

From 2017-2020, Deese was the global head of sustainable investing at BlackRock, where he worked to drive greater focus on climate and sustainability risk in investment portfolios and created investment strategies to help accelerate the low‐carbon transition. Deese also worked at the Center for Global Development, where he co-wrote the book Delivering on Debt Relief. His writings have appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, and Foreign Affairs.

Deese received his B.A. from Middlebury College and his JD from Yale Law School.