After graduating from Oberlin College and Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs (MPA 1975), Les Leopold co-founded and currently directs The Labor Institute (1976), a non-profit organization that designs research and educational programs on occupational safety and health, the environment and economics for unions, workers centers and community organizations.

In addition to "Defiant German, Defiant Jew," he is the author of "Runaway Inequality," (Labor Institute Press 2015, 2017, 2018), "How to Make a Million Dollars an Hour: Why Financial Elites get away with siphoning off America's Wealth" (John Wiley and Sons, 2013), "The Looting of America: How Wall Street's Game of Fantasy Finance destroyed our Jobs, Pensions and Prosperity, and What We Can Do About It," (Chelsea Green Publishing, June 2009), and "The Man Who Hated Work and Loved Labor: The Life and Times of Tony Mazzocchi," (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2006.)