Dr. Robert J. Shapiro is co-founder and Chairman of Sonecon, LLC, an economic advisory firm that provides in-depth analyses and unique insights into changing economic conditions in the United States and around the world and the impact of government policies on those conditions and the prospects for particular industries. Sonecon and its chairman, former U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce Robert Shapiro, have provided their analyses to, among many others, Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Bill Clinton, Vice President Albert Gore and Senators Hillary Clinton, as well as senior executives of Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies and prominent non-profit organizations.

Dr. Shapiro is also director of the Globalization Center at NDN, a Senior Fellow of the Georgetown University Business School, chair of the Climate Task Force, co-chair of America Task Force Argentina, and a board member of the Ax:son-Johnson Foundation in Sweden. From 1997 to 2001, Dr. Shapiro was U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs. In that position, he directed economic policy for the Commerce Department and oversaw the Nation's major statistical agencies, including the Census Bureau while it planned and carried out the 2000 decennial census. Prior to that appointment, he was co-founder and Vice President of the Progressive Policy Institute and the Progressive Foundation. He also was principal economic advisor in Governor Bill Clinton's 1991-1992 presidential campaign and senior economic advisor to Vice President Albert Gore and Senator John Kerry in their presidential campaigns. In 2008, he advised the campaign and transition of Barack Obama. Dr. Shapiro also served as Legislative Director for Senator Daniel P. Moynihan and Associate Editor of U.S. News & World Report. He has been a Fellow of Harvard University, the Brookings Institution, and the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Dr. Shapiro holds a Ph.D. and M.A. from Harvard, a M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, and an A.B. from the University of Chicago.