Robert F. Wescott, Ph.D.

Founder and President
Keybridge

 

Robert F. Wescott is Founder and President of Keybridge, a 25-person economic research firm in Washington, DC, that has served global financial institutions, Fortune 500 companies, leading nonprofits, and government agencies since 2001.  Dr. Wescott has 35 years of professional experience working on global macroeconomic, financial, and public policy issues. He is a frequent speaker to business and financial audiences around the world about the global economy, financial markets, and geopolitical risks. He also testifies as an expert before U.S. Congressional committees on economic, financial, and energy policy matters.

Wescott served for four years as Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy at the White House and as Chief Economist at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. During these years, he served as the President’s top international economic adviser and developed the Administration’s policies toward G-20 countries, including the European Union, Japan, Russia, China, India, and other key emerging market countries. At the Council of Economic Advisers, he prepared policy analysis and was responsible for the Administration’s U.S. economic forecasts. He also wrote and edited the Economic Report of the President.  

From 1994-98 Dr. Wescott was Deputy Division Chief in the Research Department of the International Monetary Fund, where he did research on the global economy and was responsible for the Fund’s semi-annual World Economic Outlook.  He also was an official in the Fund’s European Department. From 1982-93, Wescott was Senior Vice President and Chief Economist at Wharton Econometrics/WEFA (today S&P Global), a private economic modeling and analysis firm, where he was responsible for the firm’s economic modeling and forecasting.  During these years he was the firm’s primary spokesman with clients and the media.

In 1990-91, Wescott lived in Japan and helped establish the International Centre for the Study of East Asian Development (ICSEAD) in Kitakyushu, a research institute founded in cooperation the University of Pennsylvania that does economic research on the economies of East Asia.  

Wescott holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and has published research papers in the areas of macroeconomics, energy economics, fiscal policy, inflation, global financial crises, and geopolitical risks.