Harvard President Garber Gently Ribs Larry Summers at 70th Birthday Conference

Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 teased University Professor Lawerence H. Summers during a largely comedic address about the former Harvard president’s “brazen spirit” at an economics policy conference in honor of Summers’ 70th birthday.

During the event on Friday, which was held one week and one day before Summers’ 70th birthday, Garber told attendees that Summers’ “interest somehow radiated the warmth of the sun.”

“Now, as everyone here knows, the sun can also be hot, and sometimes quite hot,” Garber added. “If you have any doubt, ask anyone in Harvard’s leadership.”

The lighthearted tribute came after a year of crisis for Harvard’s top administration that saw Summers emerge as one of the University’s fiercest critics. He has repeatedly taken aim at both former Harvard President Claudine Gay and, occasionally, Garber himself for their handling of pro-Palestine student protesters.

Less than two months earlier, Summers accused Garber of tolerating antisemitism by continuing to recognize the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee as an official student group after they released a statement celebrating the anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Summers, who resigned as University president in 2006 following several contentious fights with members of the faculty, established a reputation for opposing top Harvard officials in October 2023, when the University descended into controversy.

After Gay did not explicitly condemn Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack when she was also faced with a student group statement that blamed Israel for the violence, Summers was among her loudest opponents, writing on social media that he was “sickened” by the administration’s silence.

Though Summers has spoken approvingly of Garber, he remained critical of the Harvard Corporation — the University’s highest governing body — throughout Garber’s interim tenure, even suggesting in May that members of the board should resign.

But for his birthday, the former Treasury secretary held his day-long macroeconomics conference at Harvard, bringing together the who’s who of the financial world and Harvard’s leadership in a conference room at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Corporation member Tracy P. Palandjian ’93 and former HKS Dean Douglas W. Elmendorf attended the event alongside dozens of economics professors and financial titans. Blackstone CFO Michael S. Chae ’90, a recent appointee to the Harvard Management Company’s board of directors, served as the event’s sponsor.

After Garber spoke, guests listened to hours of panel discussions about Summers’ contributions to economics. In a concluding session titled “The Many Sides of Larry Summers,” Sheryl K. Sandberg ’91, the former chief operating officer of Meta, and former Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin ’60 thanked Summers for his mentorship.

“We all walk around, and we identify ourselves as ‘I’m a Larry Summers student,’” Sandberg said. “With real pride, but also real gratitude because he changed all of our lives.”

In his opening remarks, Garber told attendees about his decades-long friendship with Summers, who he first met in a course at Harvard. Garber then turned to astrology in an attempt to describe Summers’ personality, relying on horoscopes from Allure Magazine.

“In thinking about this event, I became aware of some striking similarities between your average Sagittarius and our not-so-average honoree, Larry Summers,” Garber told the crowd.

Garber also recalled asking Summers for advice following his medical residency about whether to stay at Harvard or take a professorship at Stanford. Garber said he did not take Summers’ advice to stay.

He said their paths crossed again years later on a flight to Boston, when Garber would soon return to his alma mater as provost. Though Garber was planning to start the job mid-semester, Summers advised him to push up his start date to August.

“‘When I give advice, usually I’m like, 70 or 80 percent sure that the advice will be good. This is not one of those times. I’m like 90 or 95 percent sure,’” Garber recalled Summers saying.

“When you told me I should stay at Harvard, I’ll admit you might have been right — just a little off about the timing,” Garber joked.

More than a decade after resigning the presidency, Summers remains a loud and influential Harvard figure, according to Garber.

“Larry is very generous with his advice,” he said.

“Once in a while, it’s actually advice that I ask for,” Garber added, drawing laughs from the crowd. “But truly, your advice is always worth paying attention to, and all of us learn from you whenever you offer it.”

—Staff writer Emma H. Haidar can be reached at emma.haidar@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @HaidarEmma.

—Staff writer Cam E. Kettles can be reached at cam.kettles@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @cam_kettles.