Robert Reich served as secretary of labor in the first Clinton administration from 1993 to 1997. He also served under President Ford (1974-1977) as assistant to the solicitor general and director of the policy planning staff of the Federal Trade Commission.

Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1946, Reich graduated from Dartmouth College in 1968. From 1968 to 1970, he studied at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar and earned a master's degree before earning his law degree from Yale Law School in 1973.

Outside of political work, Reich has held several academic positions. He spent twelve years, from 1981 to 1993, on the faculty of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. After leaving the Clinton administration, Reich became a professor of social and economic policy at Brandeis University's Heller Graduate School, where he still teaches today.