Marina Whitman

John von Neumann was a mathematical genius known for many things, notably including the design of stored-program computer architecture and the invention of game theory. He perhaps should also be better known than he is as the father of Marina von Neumann Whitman, the author of this remarkable memoir. Whitman, who is now in her 70s, has lived an extraordinary life. She was the first woman to serve on the President’s Council of Economic Advisors; she was one of the first women to sit on the boards of several major, international corporations; and she was the first female chief economist of GM. In addition, she’s been a very successful academic economist. Her book is intelligent, informative, interesting, and inspiring, providing thoroughly engaging accounts of what it’s like to operate in the highest echelons of government and industry, and of what it’s like to be a woman in a man’s world. At times supremely confident, at times cautious, Whitman is deeply self-aware of what she has done well and what she has failed at, and she is strikingly honest and open is describing her own flaws as well as her successes.… (meer)