John Cogan Biography and Net Worth

John Cogan is the retired lead independent director of Gilead Sciences, a position he held for seven years. 

Cogan spent 15 years on Gilead’s board, beginning in 2005. He currently serves as the Leonard and Shirley Ely Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and as a professor for Stanford University’s public policy program. 

Cogan’s career began in 1975 when he served for five years as an associate economist at RAND Corporation. By 1979, he was appointed a national fellow at the Hoover Institution; by 1980, he became a senior research fellow; and by 1984, he was a senior fellow. Cogan has held a number of positions in the U.S. government, beginning in 1981 as assistant secretary for public policy in the U.S. Department of Labor under President Ronald Reagan. He continued with the administration until 1989, working as the associate director of the U.S. office of management and budget and as deputy director of the same office. His responsibilities included social security, disability, employment training, healthcare and welfare. 

Public service again played a role in Cogan’s career when he served on President George W. Bush’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security, among other initiatives. Cogan was also part of California’s Commission on the 21st Century Economy and the California Public Employee Post-Employment Benefits Commission. 

During his time at Stanford, Cogan has served on various faculty advisory boards for the Stanford-in-Washington campus and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. His own research focuses on U.S. fiscal and budget policy, healthcare and federal entitlement programs. Cogan has been widely published in professional journals across the political science and economic industries, and he has written three books. One of his books, The High Cost of Good Intentions, won the 2018 Hayek Prize. He is also the recipient of the Stanford-in-Government Distinguished Service Award. 

Cogan currently serves on the board of trustees for the Charles Schwab Family of Funds, where he is chairman of the board’s governance committee. Cogan holds an A.B. from the University of California at Los Angeles in economics, where he also earned his Ph.D. He completed his M.A. in economics from California State University at Long Beach.