It's my pleasure and privilege to be a University Professor at Claremont Graduate University, where I served as President from 2005-9. Before coming to CGU, I was Dean and Ford Distinguished Professor of International Development and Security at the Pardee RAND Graduate School, America’s leading Ph.D. program in policy analysis.
Along the way I've been an associate professor of public policy and Special Assistant to the President of Harvard; Lester Crown visiting professor of economics at Yale; professor of economics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal; Lee Ka-Shing distinguished chair professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore; and a visiting fellow at Oxford.
I received my BA, MPP, and PhD degrees from Harvard.
CV: Download (PDF)
My hands-on workshops provide leaders with the best international data, models, and success stories. My partners range from environmental nonprofits to Supreme Audit Authorities; from the International Monetary Fund to the International Anti-Corruption Academy; from Sonora, Mexico, to Mandaue City, the Philippines; from the Control and Anti-Corruption Authority in Saudi Arabia to the Royal Institute for Governance and Strategic Studies in Bhutan.
Since ChatGPT emerged on November 30, 2022, I have been fascinated by the potential of Generative AI. It's been my pleasure to lead workshops around the world on how GenAI can transform education, government, and business.
My books have been translated into eighteen languages. They include Controlling Corruption, which helped launch the global anti-corruption movement; Choosing Elites, which is included in The Harvard Guide to Influential Books; and Tropical Gangsters, which was named one of The New York Times’ Books of the Century.
You can find out more in the Books section of the website.
In 2025, ScholarGPS ranked me as one of the top 50 scholars in the world in three areas: corruption, policy analysis, and exploratory data analysis.
FOR SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS: Please contact me at robert.klitgaard@gmail.com
