BAA HKS Spotlight, May 2025
Karin Kimbrough - Chief Economist for LinkedIn. www.kkimbrough@linkedin.com
Please tell us a little about your educational background.
I received my BA in Economics from Stanford University. I have always been interested in Economics. I worked briefly on Capitol Hill in Congress as a Legislative Assistant to a Congressman gaining exposure to policymaking. I then moved over to work on trade policy at the European Commission in Brussels.
I attended the KSG* because I wanted to build my skills across various functions and how to shape, and write about, policy. I received my MPP in International Trade and Economics, from HKS Class of 1994.
Why did you decide to pursue a PhD after obtaining your MPP?
While at KSG I took a Development Economics class at the Harvard Yard with a visiting professor from Oxford University and fell absolutely in love with the subject and I realized that was what I wanted to do. I basically followed him back to Oxford to pursue a PhD in Economics (which they call a DPhil over there!). Afterwards I stayed and worked in the United Kingdom at Morgan Stanley as an economist. It was a wonderful experience living and working in a different culture and getting to use my French and Spanish.
Please share what you have learned from holding different jobs over your career?
I have been an economist my entire career and worked in many different industries from an investment bank, to a central bank, to Tech. My work for five (5) years with Morgan Stanley provided an opportunity to interact with customers and broaden and strengthen my data analytical skills and communication skills.
I then went to work with the Federal Reserve, as I had both an economics and policy background. I leaned heavily on my MPP degree which provided me with the skills to integrate monetary policy with economics and capital markets. I worked with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for ten (10) years. It was one of my most fulfilling and challenging career experiences, working on the Fed’s mission to achieve stable prices and full employment.
I eventually moved on to Google and later LinkedIn. It was my first experience working in fast-growing tech companies. They both have very different cultures, fast decision-making, and were less process-oriented more outcome-oriented. It was amazing to pivot to totally different environments than the banking world I was familiar with.
Here's the lesson: I never regretted a job change. Every time I've changed a role, I've learned something new. Usually something I couldn't have anticipated, whether it was driving change management, public speaking, or leading teams. And with each role I’ve expanded my network – met and learned from folks with completely different responsibilities, skill sets and experiences. Your network is so important for your career opportunities. Interestingly, it's not always the people who do exactly what you do who are the most helpful to you. It's the people who know you tangentially or in an ancillary way. They’re more likely to think of opportunities for you that you would otherwise never know about because they're operating in a totally different circle than you are. You just happen to know each other.
You were at Google before LinkedIn. Can you tell us a little about that?
You know, I was at Google, and I wasn't working as an economist. I was an Assistant Treasurer. I was learning and enjoying all my colleagues at Google, but eventually I missed working as an economist. So, this LinkedIn job for Chief Economist happened to open up, and it was just around the corner from me! Someone in my network forwarded the job description to me – and I applied! I joined LinkedIn as their chief economist in 2020. Being at LinkedIn is a real privilege because I have access to an enormous amount of data and work with such talented and hard-working colleagues. Right now, I’m researching how AI is changing work, and hopefully that helps LinkedIn members access meaningful work opportunities.
Was there any teacher who really influenced you from HKS?
Oh yes there was a teacher at HKS* that really encouraged me at a moment when it was important to feel encouraged as a young woman. In a field that was traditionally dominated by men, there was Edith Stokey. I had her for economics. I really enjoyed her as a leader and lecturer in the school. And particularly as someone who took a personal interest in me and encouraged me on my path.
What do you find most fulfilling about your career? And how have you made a difference?
I think the most fulfilling part of my career has been the variety of jobs that I've held. Perhaps everyone would say the same thing, but I've had jobs where I worked on a foreign exchange trading desk in London and jobs where I worked at a central bank in New York during the 2008 financial crisis and a job working in a treasury of a very fast-growing tech company. And now I'm at LinkedIn with all of this data and a billion members worldwide. I am looking to understand how the world of work is evolving post-COVID, with hybrid work, and how jobs are changing with Generative AI. Work is changing so quickly now – from how we work, and where we work, to what skills are most in demand by employers. For example: 20% of US-based members hired on LinkedIn last year took roles that did not exist in 2000 – work really is changing! I get to look into these questions and so I enjoy the variety that my career has given me.
What advice would you offer current Harvard Kennedy School students as they begin to think about life after Graduate School?
I would say invest in both your domain expertise-- that could be your technical and digital skills-- but also your people skills. So as much as you might want to be a fantastic expert in whatever field you're in, you also want to be a great communicator. A strong and empathetic leader. These are things I think are really important and they go hand in hand.
Is there anything else you would like to tell us?
Yes, there is. What I most appreciated about Harvard or the HKS were my fellow classmates. I was truly impressed by their intellectual curiosity, and their willingness to give of themselves in service of public policy.
And I don't think I realized before attending HKS just how much value I would get by being in class with such an amazing group of people. And so that's actually what I value most about the Harvard Kennedy School to this day -- the people that I met while I was there.
Of course, I valued all my learning experiences because in doing so I confirmed that my core calling is as an economist. But the big difference between going to Harvard Kennedy School versus some other school was how much I learned from my fellow classmates.
*KSG -Kennedy School of Government, former name of the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). KSG and HKS are used interchangeably in this Spotlight.