Nariman Behravesh '70
Forecasting Economic Trends with Precision
When it comes to forecasting economic trends, Nariman Behravesh '70 is a master. In fact, he was rated as the most accurate of 43 economists tracked quarterly in 2004 by USA TODAY. Behravesh is chief global economist and executive vice president for Global Insight (formerly DRI-WEFA), the world's largest economic forecasting and consulting firm. He directs its forecasting process, risk analysis, and economic outlook. Using sophisticated econometric models, he and his team of 220 economists, analysts, and researchers monitor and assess economic, financial, and political developments in more than 180 countries and 400 industries.
"I'm the concert master basically," Behravesh explains. "I set the tone for the forecasts, and see that our entire team is working from the same page, with the same set of assumptions."
A native of Iran and the son of an Iranian father and an English mother, Behravesh grew up in the Middle East and Europe and is fluent in Italian, French, Farsi, and Turkish.
"As a seventh-grader at an American school in Rome I read a long article about MIT's one hundredth anniversary and instantly decided I was going to MIT," he recalls. Despite initial inclinations to become an engineer, Behravesh switched to economics his sophomore year.
He earned his master's and PhD in economics at the University of Pennsylvania, studying with Nobel Prize winner and econometrics pioneer Lawrence Klein PhD '44, founder of WEFA (Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates). "Klein was actually MIT's first PhD in economics, and Paul Samuelson was his thesis advisor." After graduating, Behravesh completed stints at the Congressional Budget Office, the Federal Reserve Bank in Philadelphia, Standard & Poor's, and Oxford Economics, where he served as president and CEO, before joining Global Insight. He has been with Global Insight for 23 years.
Behravesh and his wife, Ann, an attorney, live in Lexington, Mass., and have three children and two grandchildren. His work involves continual travel nationwide and to Europe and Asia. "There's always something new, and there's never a dull moment," he says. "It's a job where I'm always learning and the work is intellectually challenging. What more could you want?"
(First published in Technology Review, August 2005)
