"He didn't suffer fools easily. That style didn't go over easy dealing with congressmen. That was the main transformation--learning to patiently explain something to someone who's clearly not informed on the issue, and being more politically savvy in that sense," he said.

Elaine Kamarck, a former Clinton administration official who is now a lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government, said that Summers' experience at the Treasury Department is good preparation for the myriad of challenges he will face at Harvard. His domain included complex areas such as the Internal Revenue Service, the Customs Agency and Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

"The IRS, Customs Agency and ATF are very complex. They are agencies that are worlds unto themselves, much like the many departments and schools at Harvard," she said. "In a way, running the Treasury Department is analogous to running a big university."

"He adapted to the best parts of Washington, and managed to miss the worst parts," Podesta said. "He learned to listen--a trait that most economics professors don't learn very well," he joked.

At a press conference yesterday where his selection was announced, Summers said he would do a lot of listening before he began to use the bully pulpit that comes with the post of Harvard president.

Friends say Summers is unlikely to use the Harvard presidency as a soapbox for electoral politics. Having already served as secretary of the Treasury, he's already "been to the top" of his field, Podesta said.

"Larry did spend eight years as part of an administration, but his roots are in higher education. He doesn't want to politicize higher education. The treasury was one of the least political parts of the government. He got a lot done in Washington that was very bipartisan. He was able to work with everyone," said Sheryl K. Sandberg '91, Summers' chief of staff at the Treasury Department.