John Oliver Wilson

John Oliver Wilson

John Oliver Wilson is a professional economist currently living in Napa Valley, California, where he is involved in teaching, writing and operating a small vineyard. He also leads the Napa Valley Great Decisions Seminar, a 50 member strong foreign policy discussion group.

Wilson’s career spanned finance, academics and government. He retired as Executive Vice President and Chief Economist, Bank of America, where he worked from 1975 to 1999. He then rejoined the University of California-Berkeley faculty where he had been teaching since 1979. Prior to that he was on the economics faculty at Yale University (1969-72) where he was also Director of the Urban Economics Program. He has held three presidential level appointments: Assistant Director, Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), Assistant Secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and Director of Nuclear Power Policy Regulation, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.