Stephen R. Lewis, Jr. is President Emeritus and Professor of Economics Emeritus at Carleton College, where he served as president from 1987 to 2002. He began senior administrative experience at Williams College, where he twice served as Provost of the College (1968-71 and 1973-77). In January 2007 he was elected Chairman of the Boards of Columbia Funds, the Minneapolis-based mutual fund group, formerly IDS Funds.

An economist with a specialty in developing countries, Lewis received his BA, Phi Beta Kappa, from Williams in 1960, and his PhD in Economics from Stanford in 1963. He taught Economics at Stanford (1962-63), Harvard (1965-66), the University of Nairobi (1971-72) and Williams (1966-87), where he held the Herbert H. Lehman Professorship.

As Research Advisor to the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics in Karachi (1963-65), Lewis headed a research section on fiscal policy; his work resulted in two books, including Pakistan: Industrialization and Trade Policy (1970). He also lived in Nairobi (1971-73) where he served as an Economic Advisor to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development of the Government of Kenya.

In 1975, Lewis began a long association with Botswana, serving as Economic Consultant to the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning on a resident basis in 1977-78 and 1980-82, on short term assignments from 1975 to 1988, and occasionally since then. With Charles Harvey he coauthored Policy Choice and Development Performance in Botswana (1990). Lewis edited Q.K.J. Masire’s Very Brave or Very Foolish? Memoirs of an African Democrat (Macmillan, 2006). Masire served as Botswana’s Vice President and Minister of Finance from Independence in 1966 until 1980, and as its second President from 1980 to 1998. Lewis was awarded the Presidential Order of Meritorious Service by the Botswana Government in 1983.

As a result of his work in Southern Africa, Lewis was asked by the Council on Foreign Relations to analyze the South African economy, which resulting in his 1990 book The Economics of Apartheid.

Lewis is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Dean’s Advisory Council of the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, a trustee of William Mitchell College of Law and of Wallin Education Partners, and Vice Chairman of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is a Director of Columbia Funds and Valmont Industries, Inc. He chairs the Visiting Committee of the Center for Development Economics at Williams, and also serves as a consultant to colleges and their presidents. He has received honorary degrees from Williams, Carleton, Macalester College, Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan, and Lingnan University in Hong Kong.

In 1996 Lewis married the former Judith Frost Flinn. They each have three grown children and several grandchildren.