Susan Athey

Professor Athey rejoined Keystone in 2024 as the Chief Scientific Advisor and she is the Economics of Technology Professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Professor Athey received her bachelor’s degree from Duke University and her PhD from Stanford, and she holds an honorary doctorate from Duke University. She previously taught at the economics departments at MIT, Stanford, and Harvard.

She is an elected member of the National Academy of Science and is the recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal, awarded by the American Economics Association to the economist under 40 who has made the greatest contributions to thought and knowledge. Her current research focuses on the economics of digitization, marketplace design, and the intersection of econometrics and machine learning.

She has worked on several application areas, including timber auctions, internet searches, online advertising, the news media, and social impact applications of digital technology. As one of the first “tech economists,” Professor Athey served as consulting chief economist for Microsoft Corporation for six years and has served on the boards of multiple private and public technology firms. She also served as a long-term advisor to the British Columbia Ministry of Forests, helping architect and implement their auction-based pricing system.

Professor Athey was a founding associate director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, and she is the founding director of the Golub Capital Social Impact Lab at Stanford GSB. She served two years as Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division. She was the 2023 President of the American Economics Association, where she previously served as vice president and elected member of the Executive Committee.