Christopher Smart

An investor, scholar and journalist, Dr. Christopher Smart has spent the last six years in the Obama Administration as a senior policymaker for international economic affairs.  As Special Assistant to the President at the National Economic Council and the National Security Council, he was principal advisor on trade, investment and a wide range of global economic issues. From 2009-13, he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Treasury, where he led the response to the European financial crisis and designed U.S. engagement on financial policy across Europe, Russia and Central Asia.

Before entering government, Smart was Director of International Investments at Pioneer Investments where he managed top-performing Emerging Markets and International portfolios.  Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, he worked in Moscow, advising Russian government agencies on economic policy and financial market reform.  Earlier in his career, he was a reporter in St. Petersburg, Florida and Paris, France. Smart is also the author of The Imagery of Soviet Foreign Policy and the Collapse of the Russian Empire (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1995) and numerous analytical and opinion articles.

He earned a B.A. in History from Yale University and a PhD in International Relations from Columbia University.  He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.