Event co-chairs Mashon Allen and T. Charles Yun, virtually kicked off the 2020 Michigan IT Symposium followed by a conversation between U-M VPIT-CIO Ravi Pendse, PhD and Michael Barr, dean of University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy. Their discussion covered intersection of technology and public policy and included Q&A from the audience via Zoom.
Michael S. Barr
Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of Public Policy; Frank Murphy Collegiate Professor of Public Policy; Roy F. and Jean Humphrey Proffitt Professor of Law
Michael S. Barr is the Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, the Frank Murphy Collegiate Professor of Public Policy, the Roy F. and Jean Humphrey Proffitt Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School, and the founder and Faculty Director of the University of Michigan's Center on Finance, Law, and Policy. He is also a nonresident senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. At the Law School, Barr taught Financial Regulation and International Finance, and co-founded the International Transactions Clinic and the Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project.
Professor Barr conducts research and writes about a wide range of issues in domestic and international financial regulation. His books include Financial Regulation: Law & Policy (Foundation Press 2016, 2d Ed. 2018, with Howell Jackson and Margaret Tahyar), No Slack: The Financial Lives of Low-Income Americans (Brookings Press, 2012), Insufficient Funds (Russell Sage, 2009, co-edited with Rebecca Blank), and Building Inclusive Financial Systems (Brookings Press, 2007, co-edited with Anjali Kumar and Robert Litan).
Barr serves in a wide variety of advisory roles. He is a trustee of the Kresge Foundation, and serves on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation FinTech Advisory Council, the FDIC Advisory Committee on Economic Inclusion, ideas42's Scientific Advisory Board, the Research Advisory Board for the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, and as an advisor to NYCA Partners, SentiLink, CLINC, Savi, and Global ID Framework, among others.
Professor Barr was on leave during 2009 and 2010, serving in President Barack H. Obama's Administration as the U.S. Department of the Treasury's assistant secretary for financial institutions, and was a key architect of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. Prior to his Senate confirmation, Barr served on the National Economic Council in the White House. Professor Barr previously served in the Administration of William J. Clinton as Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin's special assistant, as deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury, as special adviser to President William J. Clinton, and as a special adviser and counselor on the policy planning staff at the U.S. Department of State.
Barr served as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter during October Term 1993, and previously to the Hon. Pierre N. Leval, then of the Southern District of New York.
He received his JD from Yale Law School, his MPhil in international relations as a Rhodes Scholar from Magdalen College, Oxford University, and his BA, summa cum laude, with honors in history, from Yale University.
Ravi Pendse, PhD
Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer
Dr. Pendse serves as an executive officer of the university and provides university-wide leadership and strategic direction for information technology. He has extensive experience as a successful and collaborative university leader, most recently as Brown University’s vice president for computing and information services and chief information officer. He has also been a professor, researcher, teacher and advisor to students. His successes include securing more than $21 million in external research grants, developing university courses, earning several teaching awards, and publishing numerous scholarly articles and papers co-authored by students.
Dr. Pendse holds a B.S. in electronics and communication engineering from Osmania University in Hyderabad, India. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Wichita State University.