Bill Mauer

Jennifer Hill talks to the Dean of University of California Irvine, Bill Mauer, about how he followed his passions and landed the role of Dean at a major university. Bill emphasizes the importance of humility, having great mentors and always asking others “What do you think?” Bill also gives suggestions for pursuing a career in administration. He suggests checking out the “Chronicles of Higher Education,” as well as, “The American Association of University Administrators.”

faculty.sites.uci.edu/wmmaurer

Bill Maurer, Ph.D., is dean of the School of Social Sciences and professor of anthropology; criminology, law and society; and law at the University of California, Irvine. An anthropologist, he is one of the world’s leading experts on money’s artifacts and technological systems, from cowrie shells to credit cards. He is the author of numerous books and articles, including most recently, How Would You Like to Pay? How Technology is Changing the Future of Money, and recently edited (with Lana Swartz) Paid: Tales of Dongles, Checks, and Other Money Stuff. The director of the Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion (www.imtfi.uci.edu), which was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Maurer coordinates research in over 40 countries on how new payment technologies impact poor people’s well-being. The Institute was named a Center of Excellence for financial technology by the Filene Research Institute, which supports the credit union industry. He is a founding member of the Future of Money Research Collaborative (moneyfutures.org) and is currently editing The Cultural History of Money, in six volumes, covering antiquity to the present. He recently received a grant from the US National Science Foundation for a new project on blockchain technology and the law, and is directing an interdisciplinary technology, law and society research group, also with NSF support. Maurer’s work has had an impact on U.S. and global policies for mobile payment and financial access, and it has been covered in venues ranging from Bloomberg Businessweek to The New York Times, Forbes and Marketplace. He was appointed to the Board on Behavioral, Cognitive and Sensory Sciences of the National Academy of Sciences in 2015. He also advised the Department of Treasury and Federal Reserve on the redesign of the U.S. paper currency, and has advised the British Museum and the Smithsonian on money-related artifacts and exhibitions. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Filene Research Institute. He received his bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Vassar College and his master’s and doctoral degrees in anthropology from Stanford University