Mr. Reed was born in Chicago in 1939. He was raised in Argentina and Brazil. He came to go to college in the United States and graduated from Washington and Jefferson College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1961 under a joint degree program earning a BA and a BS degree. He served as a Lieutenant in the Corp of Engineers, US Army from 1962-64 and then returned to MIT for his MS.
Mr. Reed spent thirty five years with Citibank/Citicorp and Citigroup, the last sixteen years as Chairman. He retired in April of 2000.
Mr. Reed returned to work as Chairman of the New York Stock Exchange from September 2003 until April 2005 and is currently serving as Chairman of the Corporation of MIT.
Mr. Reed is a Trustee of MDRC, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the NBER. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the American Philosophical Society.