David Daokui Li is currently the Mansfield Freeman Chair Professor of the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University. He is the director of The Schwarzman Scholars Program at Tsinghua University.He is also the director of Center for China in the World Economy (CCWE) at the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University. 

Before joining Tsinghua, he had been on the faculty of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (1999-2004) and the University of Michigan (1992-1999).  From 1997 to 1998, he was a National Fellow of Hoover Institution at Stanford University.  

In 2006, David Li was chosen by Wall Street Wire as a top ten most influential economist in China.

David Li is active in public service.  He is currently a delegate to the Beijing People’s Congress and a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee (CPPCC).  He is now a member of the Global Agenda Councils and a Rapporteur of the International Financial Institutions Reform Cluster of the Global Redesign Initiative (GRI) of the World Economic Forum based in Davos, Switzerland.

Professor Li holds a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.  In 1985, he obtained his BS from Tsinghua University as one of the first undergraduate class of the School of Economics and Management, where he is serving as a faculty member.