Peter McPherson is president of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (A٠P٠L٠U). He is the Chair of the Project Advisory Committee (PAC) of HarvestPlus and former Chair of the Board of IFDC. McPherson is the former Chair of the Board of Dow Jones & Company, publisher of the Wall Street Journal. He was president of Michigan State University from 1993 through 2004. From April to October 2003, he took leave from that position and served as the Director of Economic Policy in Iraq (new currency, banks, etc.) under the Coalition Provisional Authority.
In the years prior to being named presidentof Michigan State University, McPherson was a Group Executive Vice President with the Bank of America. While at Bank of America (B of A), he was responsible for the B of A’s banks in Latin American and Canada and later its trust and private banking business. He was also chair of the U.S. banking community’s advisory board on the negotiation of NAFTA. From 1981 to 1987, McPherson was Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, the number two position at Treasury. In that position, he was one of three U.S. negotiators in the final weeks of the U.S. Canadian Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
In the 1980s he was also the Administrator of the Agency for International Development (the U.S. foreign aid program) and Chair of the board of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.
In the 1970s, McPherson practiced international tax law and was the managing partner of the Washington office of a large Ohio law firm. He was also a Special Assistant to President Gerald Ford at the White House.
In the 1960s, McPherson was a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru.