Michael Froman
Ambassador, President of the Council on Foreign Relations
Ambassador Michael Froman is president of the Council on Foreign Relations. He previously served as vice chairman and president of strategic growth at Mastercard and chairman of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth. He was also a distinguished fellow at the Council from 2017 to 2023.
Froman served in President Barack Obama’s cabinet as the U.S. trade representative from June 2013 to January 2017. From January 2009 to June 2013, he served at the White House as assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor for international economic affairs, where he was responsible for coordinating policy on international trade, finance, energy, climate change, and development issues, and served as the U.S. sherpa for the Group of Twenty and Group of Eight summits.
Prior to joining the Obama administration, Froman held a number of roles at Citigroup. He was also a senior fellow at the Council and a resident fellow at the German Marshall Fund.
In the 1990s, Froman spent seven years in the U.S. government. He served as chief of staff and as deputy assistant secretary for Eurasia and the Middle East at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. He also worked at the White House as director for international economic affairs at the National Security Council and the National Economic Council.
Froman received a bachelor’s degree in public and international affairs from Princeton University, a doctorate in international relations from Oxford University, and a law degree from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.