Alumnus and globally renowned economist John Taylor ’64 will be the featured speaker at Shady Side Academy’s Senior School Commencement Exercises, held Friday, June 2, 2023, at 9 a.m. in Michael J. Farrell Stadium.
A giant in the field of macroeconomics, Taylor is the Mary and Robert Raymond Professor of Economics at Stanford University, the George P. Shultz Senior Fellow in Economics at the Hoover Institution, and Director of the Stanford Introductory Economics Center. His research has had a seismic impact on global economic theory and policy, including an interest rate equation he developed now known as the Taylor Rule, widely accepted around the world as one of the most effective tools central banks can use to support monetary decision making.
Taylor has been active and influential in U.S. economic policy, serving both Democratic and Republican administrations on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and as Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs, a role that included leadership of currency markets, trade in financial services, foreign investment, international debt and development, and oversight of both the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
Thomson Reuters has listed Taylor among its "Citation Laureates" who are likely future winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics, and he has been named to the “50 Most Influential” list by Bloomberg Markets magazine. He received the Alexander Hamilton Award for his sustained leadership at the U.S Treasury and the Treasury Distinguished Service Award for designing and implementing transformative currency reforms in Iraq. At Stanford he won the George P. Shultz Distinguished Public Service Award, the Hoagland Prize for excellence in undergraduate teaching, and the Rhodes Prize for high teaching ratings in his introductory economics course.
Prior to Stanford, Taylor was a professor of economics at both Princeton and Columbia universities. He holds a B.A. in economics from Princeton and a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford.
Taylor attended Shady Side Academy as a five-day boarder in grades 9-12 and has noted that the foundation SSA gave him in writing and the sciences was "just extraordinary." He remains engaged as a member of the SSA Board of Visitors and regularly hosts alumni events at his home in Palo Alto.