Up and Doing: Two Presidents, Three Mistakes, and One Great Weekend―Touchpoints to a Better World

"The tales of this one man’s astonishing journey are irresistible, riotous, resonant, heartfelt, and subtly revealing of where America has been and where we’re headed. I loved this book."
—Ron Suskind, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist

From championing developing nations to funding our carbon-free future, investor and advisor James Harmon reveals how markets can move the world forward by creating stable, growing economies and sound deals that promote economic development.

James Harmon has always had a passion for ambitious causes. As a banker, he successfully advised corporations, like Starbucks, and helped them to become cultural institutions. Dabbling in the movie and music industries, he found meaning in funding the art he felt would make people happy and add to the public good. His unique perspective on investment led him to the Clinton White House as head of EXIM Bank and, eventually, to Egypt, where he represented the State Department shortly after the Arab Spring. Still ​“up and doing,” today he co-chairs the board of the World Resources Institute.

Not all of Harmon’s deals were successes, and he recounts the wins and losses in equal detail, exposing lessons learned, and even sharing a few farcical scenes featuring Washington’s and Wall Street’s most notorious bold-faced names.

No matter where he is replanted, Harmon advocates for global change by examining the issues of our time, including women’s financial empowerment and the urgent need to fight climate change. He encourages our leaders to apply lessons learned in the private sector to the world’s most demanding challenges, from helping a local community to electing a president or bolstering a developing African nation.

Up and Doing presents a tale of the deals that made Harmon a celebrated figure in the world of global investment, and shows that the best way to do well is by also doing good.