James Schlesinger was born February 15, 1929. His educational background is in economics, having earned a B.A. (1950), M.A. (1952) and Ph.D. (1956) from Harvard University. Schlesinger was an associate professor of economics at the University of Virginia and simultaneously a consultant for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. He later worked as director of strategic studies at the Rand Corporation in Santa Monica, California (1963-1969).

In the administration of Richard Nixon, Schlesinger was assistant director of the Office of Management and Budget and then chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission before becoming director of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1973. Schlesinger also served as secretary of defense in the presidential administration of Nixon and Gerald Ford.

President Jimmy Carter appointed Schlesinger special adviser on energy and later as the first head of the Department of Energy (1977). After Carter replaced him in 1979, Schlesinger became senior advisor to Lehman Brothers, Kuhn Loeb Inc., in New York.