Ian H. Solomon

About

Ian H. Solomon is president and CEO of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, an 85-year-old foundation founded by the grandsons of John D. Rockefeller dedicated to advancing social change that contributes to a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world. He joined the Fund in 2026 after seven years as dean of the University of Virginia’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy.

Over the course of his career, Solomon has dedicated himself to improving the lives of people across the globe by integrating insights from his experiences in higher education, government, the private sector, and international organizations.

Before joining Batten, Solomon served in the U.S. Senate as legislative counsel to then-Senator Barack Obama and later as a senior adviser to former U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. In 2010, he was confirmed unanimously by Congress as the U.S. executive director for the World Bank Group, where, trained as a lawyer and a devoted student of negotiation and conflict resolution, he negotiated multi-stakeholder agreements on global food security and private-sector development in Africa. He has also been a consultant with McKinsey & Company, an associate dean and visiting lecturer at Yale Law School, and a vice president and lecturer in law at the University of Chicago. Before joining the Batten School, he led his own international consulting practice focused on conflict and collaboration.

As dean of the Batten School from 2019 to 2026 — a tenure that earned him a second term in 2024 — Solomon worked to cultivate the kind of effective leadership the world needs: curious, evidence-based, empathetic, and equipped to serve a diverse and rapidly changing world. He shaped the school’s multidisciplinary faculty of scholars and practitioners focused on generating new knowledge, developing ethical leaders, and tackling major policy challenges, and he was instrumental in expanding Batten’s physical footprint into the new Karsh Institute of Democracy building in the Emmet-Ivy Corridor. He also regularly contributed his expertise to University-wide initiatives beyond the school itself.

Originally from New York City, Solomon earned his AB from Harvard University and his JD from Yale Law School. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has traveled and worked extensively in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America.