Anirban Basu

Anirban is Chairman & CEO of Sage, an economic and policy consulting firm in Baltimore, Maryland that he founded in 2004. Mr. Basu is among the most recognizable economists, in part because of his consulting work on behalf of numerous clients, including prominent developers, bankers, brokerage houses, energy suppliers, law firms and business associations.

Mr. Basu has written several high-profile economic development strategies on behalf of government agencies and non-profit organizations, including co-authoring economic development strategies for Baltimore City and Baltimore County, Maryland. Among other things, Anirban serves as the chief economist to Associated Builders and Contractors (national) and as chief economic advisor to the Construction Financial Management Association.

In recent years, he has also focused upon health economics, the economics of education and economic development. He currently lectures at Johns Hopkins University in global strategy. In 2007 and then again in 2016, Mr. Basu was selected by the Daily Record newspaper as one of Maryland’s 50 most influential people. The Baltimore Business Journal named him one of the region’s 20 most powerful business leaders in 2010. Over time, Mr. Basu has had occasion to serve on many boards, including the boards of First Mariner Bank, the Baltimore School for the Arts, the Baltimore City Public School System, and Union Memorial Hospital. He is presently chairman of the Maryland Economic Development Commission and the Baltimore County Economic Advisory Committee. He was recently appointed to the University System of Maryland Foundation Board and is also on the Board of the Archdiocese of Baltimore School System and the Lyric Opera House. Mr. Basu earned his B.S. in Foreign Service at Georgetown University in 1990. He earned his Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and his Master’s in Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park. His Juris Doctor was earned at the University of Maryland School of Law in 2003. His doctoral work in health economics has taken place at UMBC.