Lawrence Bacow

Bacow is an avid runner, with five marathons under his belt. He and his wife, Adele Fleet Bacow, president of Community Partners Consultants, an urban planning firm, have two sons, Jay (b. 1980) and Ken. On March 24, 2020, Bacow and his wife tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

On February 11, 2018, it was announced that Bacow was set to become the 29th president of Harvard University on July 1, 2018, succeeding Drew Gilpin Faust. Chosen out of 700 candidates, his election was considered a "safe" succession to Faust. Like many of his predecessors, Bacow faced controversy as president of Harvard for failing to conduct a truly independent inquiry into the behavior of prominent scholar Jorge I. Domínguez, who has been accused by multiple women of sexual harassment while serving as a faculty member.

On May 25, 2011, Bacow was named as a member of the President and Fellows of Harvard College, one of the boards tasked with guiding the endeavors and initiatives of Harvard University. Thus, for approximately one month, until his resignation from Tufts, he had governance responsibilities at both Tufts University and Harvard University.

Upon leaving his position at Tufts in 2011, financial disclosures show that Bacow received $2,182,717 in compensation that year. He collected $745,755 in 2009 (with a base pay of $634,781) and $691,483 in 2008 (with a base pay of $631,904).

While President of Tufts, Bacow opposed the unionization efforts of graduate students as well as those of the university's technical and clerical employees. On February 8, 2010, in an email to the student body he announced that he would be stepping down as President of Tufts in June 2011. On March 1, 2010, President Barack Obama announced that Bacow was appointed to the board of advisors for the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

The Harvard Corporation has yet to release financial statements regarding Bacow's compensation at the university, but many have speculated via former president Drew Faust's disclosures. Her annual payment from 2008-2016 ranged from $792,611 to $1,099,660.

After Bacow was mentioned in The Chronicle of Higher Education in 2006 as a possible candidate to succeed Lawrence Summers as president of Harvard University, Bacow categorically denied interest in the position, saying, "I took this job [Tufts] expecting it to be my last. I still do."

On September 1, 2001, he was elected as the 12th President of Tufts University.

Bacow began his academic career in 1977 as a professor of environmental studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. At MIT, Bacow eventually became chair of his department and Chancellor of the university. From September 2001 to July 2011, Bacow served as the 12th President of Tufts University.

Bacow began his academic career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He served as professor at the institution for 24 years, ultimately being appointed department chair and the chancellor. Bacow majored in economics as an undergraduate at MIT. Upon completion of graduate school in 1977, he returned to MIT to teach in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, becoming the Lee and Geraldine Martin Professor of Environmental Studies. He was the co-founder and first Director of MIT's Center for Real Estate. As Chancellor of MIT (1998-2001), he had oversight of undergraduate and graduate education, student life, admissions, financial aid, athletics, campus planning, and MIT's large scale institutional partnerships both industrial and international. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003.

Lawrence "Larry" Seldon Bacow (/ˈ b æ ˌ k aʊ / ; born August 24, 1951) is an American lawyer, economist, author and university administrator, and currently the 29th President of Harvard University. He assumed office on July 1, 2018, succeeding Drew Gilpin Faust. Prior to assuming the presidency, Bacow was the Hauser leader-in-residence at the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He was previously at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and has been a member of the President and Fellows of Harvard College, one of the university's governing boards, since 2011.

Lawrence Seldon Bacow was born on August 24, 1951, in Detroit, Michigan. His mother emigrated from Europe at age 19 after World War II. She was the only member of her family to survive Auschwitz. Bacow's father was brought to America as a child to escape pogroms. Bacow grew up in Pontiac, Michigan, and was a part of the Boy Scouts of America; he would eventually rise to be an Eagle Scout. The organization would give him the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award later in life.