Chris Lu served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations for Management and Reform from 2022 to 2025 under President Biden. In that role, he spearheaded the first-ever UN resolution on artificial intelligence, a six-month effort to bring 193 countries to consensus. Before that, Lu was a longtime aide to Barack Obama, his Harvard Law School classmate. He worked in Obama’s Senate office starting in 2005 as legislative director and acting chief of staff, then ran the Obama-Biden Transition Project after the 2008 election. He served as White House cabinet secretary and assistant to the president during Obama’s first term, and as deputy secretary of labor during the second, making him only the second Asian American confirmed as deputy secretary of a Cabinet department. Lu now teaches at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center and is a resident fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics.
Lu sat down with the HPR to share lessons in authentic and effective leadership from his career in public service.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Harvard Political Review: What led you to take on this fellowship in the first place?
Chris Lu: I graduated from Harvard Law School in 1991, and it’s always been a very special place to me. I didn’t spend as much time at the Kennedy School as I probably should have back in the day, but I’ve known about this program at the IOP for a long time. So many of my friends have done it, and it happened to fall at a time in my life when I could take three months to come live in Cambridge. After 25 years in public service, it’s important to me, particularly in this political moment, to talk to students about why serving in government really matters, especially now. I want to talk about my career and some of the leadership lessons I’ve learned, and hopefully guide students along a similar path.
HPR: For those who can’t join your study group, could you give us a 30-second summary of what it will cover and what you hope students get out of the experience?
CL: The title of the study group is “In the Room Where It Happens: Public Leadership in Practice.” We’re talking about public leadership, meaning leadership in the public sector as opposed to the private sector. That’s an important distinction. You can go across the river to the [Harvard] Business School and they’ll tell you how to run a business, but the dynamics in the public sector are very different, and I want to talk about what that’s like. It’s called “in practice” because there are a lot of people here at the Kennedy School who will teach you leadership theory. I’m a big fan of leadership theory, but I also want students to know how it works in practice. So I’m bringing in mostly my friends who have served with me in government. They’ll talk about their experiences: the difficult decisions they had to make, the challenges they faced, the compromises they made, the dilemmas they wrestled with, and how they worked through them. I’ll be honest: I’ve never taken a leadership class in my life. The way I learned to be a leader was by watching other people lead. My hope is that after a semester of listening to good leaders, students will form their own ideas about how they want to lead and find their own authentic leadership style.
HPR: Is there a particular phrase or idea you want students to remember three years after taking your study group?
CL: I would say this: Authentic leadership matters. You can’t copy somebody else, and you can’t pretend to be somebody you’re not. If you’re not a screamer, you can’t lead like a screamer. If you’re not a touchy-feely person, don’t try to be one. But I do think everybody can look inside themselves and find their own authentic leadership style.
HPR: A lot of students here — especially at the IOP — want a career like yours in public service or international relations. When you were a student at Harvard, did you feel the same way?
CL: I did. But this is one of the other lessons I’ll share with students. I could not have imagined the career I would end up having. I think part of the reason I’ve had this career is that I haven’t been myopically focused on “This is my five-year plan; this is my ten-year plan; after this job I’m going to do that job.” It’s always been: “What’s an interesting opportunity where I can work with good people on an important mission, something I find fulfilling?” If it seems interesting to me, I’m going to do it. And I assume that if I do it, like it, and work for good people, it’ll lead to something else. That’s basically been my career.
I’m also humble enough to say that I’ve been very, very lucky. I was in the same law school class as Barack Obama, and that helps out a little bit. I’m a lawyer by training, and I worked on Capitol Hill, but when he became a U.S. senator and hired me onto his staff, my career went in a whole different direction. So I never mistake luck for skill. But one of the things I’ll tell my study group is that good people make their own luck. I do believe that if you work hard, build a good reputation, and treat people well, you get a lot of lucky breaks along the way.
HPR: Some students are in the position you were once in and want to apply their skills to public service, politics, or international relations. What advice would you give them, or your younger self?
CL: Be open to any kind of role in public service. There’s a world of specialists, and we need people who understand health policy, energy policy, and housing policy. I’m not a specialist. At different points in my career, I’ve been a lawyer. I’ve done policy work and political work. I’ve done domestic policy and foreign policy. I’ve run large organizations. For me, the enjoyment has come from constantly learning, constantly remaking my career, and finding new challenges.
When I was in college, we weren’t studying climate change. We weren’t studying terrorism, because those weren’t the issues of the ‘80s. So what I tell people is this: If you want a long career in public service and you want to specialize in health policy, great, we’ll always need health experts. But we don’t actually know what the pressing issues of the next five, 10, or 20 years are going to be. Nobody was talking about AI five years ago. So the most important thing you can do at Harvard is get a solid education and develop strong analytical and communication skills, both written and verbal. Those skills will serve you well no matter what policy issue you’re working on.
HPR: You’ve held many different roles over your career. Is there a particular role or project you’re especially looking forward to discussing with your students?
CL: I’ve honestly loved every one of my jobs, and throughout the semester we’re going to touch on many of them. I ran President Obama’s presidential transition in 2008. Running a presidential transition is an amazing undertaking, and I loved doing it, so I’ll be talking a bit about that. I managed his cabinet in the first term, so we’ll also talk about how the White House staff interacts with the cabinet and how you get a whole team to work together. I was an ambassador at the United Nations, where I led the effort behind the first-ever UN resolution on artificial intelligence in early 2024. We’ll talk about how you get countries like Russia and China to agree on AI at a time when we’re not agreeing on much. So the honest answer is that I’ve loved every one of my jobs. In my study group, I’m going to draw on different parts of my career, talk about what I learned in each, and ask colleagues who worked with me to come share their perspectives as well.
HPR: You mentioned your work under President Obama and at the United Nations. Is there a specific project or day from those experiences that stays with you, or one that shaped your understanding of politics and public service?
CL: Look, there are obviously big policy moments. I was heavily involved in the passage of the Affordable Care Act, and when that legislation was signed in 2010, that was a policy achievement you can be proud of for the rest of your life. But for me, it’s more the personal moments. I’m the child of immigrants. Both my parents were born in China, moved to Taiwan, and then came to the United States for college. The first day I walked into my office in the West Wing of the White House, I called my mom. Only in this country can the child of immigrants, in one generation, go work in the White House for the president. I remember having that same conversation with my mother the first time I went to the United Nations as an ambassador, sat behind the United States nameplate, and delivered remarks on behalf of our country. That’s remarkable. So the moments I remember most are the personal ones, when I’ve reflected on the sacrifices my family made and the opportunities this country offers.
HPR: I can only imagine that feeling. What does day-to-day work in public service actually look like?
CL: In the roles I’ve had since President Obama came into office, as his White House cabinet secretary, as deputy secretary of labor, and then as an ambassador under President Biden, I’ve led teams. And you’re only as good as your team. A good part of my day, every day, whether I was at the White House or at the United Nations, was spent meeting with my team. I’d find out what they were working on, help them solve problems, get them unstuck when they were stuck, and plan strategy, because I can only act through my team. It’s also about fostering open and honest conversation. I obviously have my own priorities and my own ideas about how things should get done, but I really want to hear from my team. I especially want to hear from them when they disagree with me, because I certainly don’t have all the answers.
A big part of these jobs is also representing your institution in outside meetings, whether that’s the White House, the Department of Labor, or the State Department. When I was in Washington, I’d be meeting with members of Congress. When I was in New York, I’d be meeting with ambassadors from other countries. When I was deputy secretary of labor, I toured a lot of factories. I went to auto manufacturers, I went to solar companies. I’ve toured so many places in my life. So the work is a combination of internal and external, and that’s what makes it fun, because every day is different.
It is hard, because the problems that come to you often don’t have an easy answer. If there were an easy answer, somebody would have already made the decision. Many of the decisions you make have both upsides and downsides. So you carry the weight of those decisions, but you also understand that when you’re in government, you can improve a lot of people’s lives at once if you make the right decisions. That carries real weight. And frankly, it’s a great honor to serve in roles like that.
HPR: You mentioned touring auto plants and solar companies, and I’m sure you visited places outside the U.S. as well. Is there a particular place that really stood out to you?
CL: When I was deputy secretary of labor, one of the biggest issues I worked on was how to make sure people coming out of prison have employment opportunities. If they get out and can’t find a job, they’re far more likely to go back to a life of crime and get locked up again. I remember visiting a prison in San Diego and seeing their job training programs. It wasn’t just helping people with their résumés or helping them find a job; it was helping them practice interviewing. One of the most striking moments was watching the prisoners take off their orange jumpsuits and put on suits, shirts, and ties to practice interviewing. The minute they put on a suit, they sat up straighter. They were more confident. That was a truly inspirational moment, because you realize the work you do can really change people’s lives. And that was a program we helped fund at the Department of Labor.
