Richard Rahn - Biography
Richard W. Rahn, a senior fellow of the Cato Institute, is chairman of the Institute for Global Economic Growth.
He is a weekly economic columnist for The Washington Times and serves on the editorial board of the Cayman Financial Review. He served two terms (2002-2008) as the first non-Caymanian member of the board of directors of the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority, which regulates the world’s largest offshore financial center.
In the 1980s, Rahn was vice president and chief economist of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, executive vice president and board member of the National Chamber Foundation, and editor in chief of the Journal of Economic Growth.
He has served in a number of national and international positions, including the Quadrennial Social Security Advisory Council and as an economic adviser to President George H.W. Bush.
In 1990, Rahn founded the Novecon companies, which included Sterling Semiconductor (now owned by Dow Corning). He continues to serve on boards of private companies.
Rahn has taught at Florida State, George Mason, George Washington, and Rutgers universities; and at the Polytechnic University of New York. He also was an instructor for the U.S. Air Force and the Washington economic adviser for New York Mercantile Exchange.
Rahn, a member of the Mont Pelerin Society, serves on many boards. He has written hundreds of articles for newspapers and magazines. He has contributed to numerous books and professional journals and wrote “The End of Money and the Struggle for Financial Privacy” (1999). He is a regular economic commentator on TV news shows.
Rahn earned a bachelor's in economics at the University of South Florida, an M.B.A. from Florida State University, and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. He received an honorary doctorate from Pepperdine University.