Larry Summers, president emeritus and professor at Harvard University, at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025.
Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers on Wednesday took leave from his post at Harvard University and said he will not teach classes there for the rest of this semester amid a furor over the release of emails between him and the notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Earlier Wednesday, Summers said that he will resign from the board of OpenAI.
Harvard on Wednesday had said it would investigate Summers' relationship with Epstein in light of the disclosure of their emails.
Summers is a former president of Harvard. He is the director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School.
His spokesman, Steven Goldberg, in a statement Wednesday night said, "Mr. Summers has decided it's in the best interest of the Center for him to go on leave from his role as Director as Harvard undertakes its review."
"His co-teachers will complete the remaining three class sessions of the courses he has been teaching with them this semester, and he is not scheduled to teach next semester," Goldberg said.
A Harvard spokesman, in a statement to The Crimson, the student newspaper, said that Harvard is "conducting a review of information concerning individuals at Harvard included in the newly released Jeffrey Epstein documents to evaluate what actions may be warranted."
Summers had announced on Monday that he would be stepping back from all public commitments, but that he would continue teaching classes at Harvard. He was mum until Wednesday about remaining on the board of directors at the artificial intelligence startup OpenAI.
"I am grateful for the opportunity to have served, excited about the potential of the company, and look forward to following their progress," Summers said in a statement to CNBC confirming he resignation.
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