I am delighted to announce that Mark Mazur will replace me as the Robert C. Pozen Director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, beginning on February 1, 2017.  

Mark currently serves as the Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy at the US Department of the Treasury, where he has been since 2009. Mark has a fantastic breadth of experience.  His 25 years of public service includes stints at: the IRS, where he served as Director of the Office of Research, Analysis and Statistics; the Department of Energy, where he was a senior advisor to Secretary Bill Richardson and Administrator of the Energy Information Administration; and staff positions at the Joint Committee on Taxation, the President’s Council of Economic Advisors, and the National Economic Council. Mark received a B.A. in financial administration from Michigan State University and Ph.D. in economics, business and public policy from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.

Mark is universally liked and admired in the tax policy community.  He has a knack for explaining complex topics to a lay audience, but also has deep and comprehensive knowledge about all aspects of federal taxation.  Mark has a reputation for objective analysis, and proven ability to work with both Democrats and Republicans to fashion solutions to difficult tax problems. His remarkable breadth of experience and strong management skills make him the perfect choice to lead TPC at a time when, more than ever, policymakers and the public need unbiased analysis based on facts and evidence.  

I will remain at the Urban Institute as an Institute Fellow, focusing on several high priority research projects. They’ll include using administrative tax data to study the effects of tax policy on the behavior of individuals and firms, and working with the IRS and experts in data privacy and statistics to find ways to expand access to these data while safeguarding taxpayer privacy.  The Arnold Foundation funded this important work as part of a major three-year grant to the TPC.

I’m proud of what TPC has accomplished, but possibly the greatest testament to our success is our ability to attract someone of Mark’s caliber. Mark follows a tradition of stellar economists as TPC directors, including Rosanne Altshuler and Donald Marron, who led TPC between 2009 and 2013. Mark will be leading an organization that is uniquely suited to elevating the tax policy debate and I look forward to what TPC will accomplish under his leadership.