Rob S. Kaplan

  • Earned bachelor’s degree from KU School of Business, 1979

  • Member of KU School of Business Dean’s Board of Advisors

  • KU School of Business Distinguished Alumni Award recipient, 2007

  • Member of KU Endowment Board of Trustees

Rob Kaplan is former president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, where he represented the 11th Federal Reserve District on the Federal Open Market Committee in the formulation of U.S. monetary policy and oversees the 1,200 employees of the Dallas Fed. He was previously a senior associate dean and the Martin Marshall Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School.

Before joining Harvard in 2006, Kaplan was vice chairman of The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. with global responsibility for the firm's Investment Banking and Investment Management Divisions. Previously, he served as global co-head of the Investment Banking Division. He was also a member of the firm’s Management Committee and served as co-chairman of the firm’s Partnership Committee and chairman of the Goldman Sachs Pine Street Leadership Program.

During his 23-year career at Goldman Sachs, Kaplan served in various other capacities, including head of the Corporate Finance Department, head of Asia-Pacific Investment Banking, as well as head of the high-yield department in Investment Banking. He became a partner in 1990. Upon joining Harvard in 2006, Kaplan became a senior director of the firm.

He serves as chairman of Project A.L.S. and co-chairman of the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, a global venture philanthropy firm that invests in developing nonprofit enterprises dedicated to addressing social issues. He is a former board member of Harvard Medical School.

Kaplan received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Kansas in 1979 and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard in 1983.