Board
John Sewell is a Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. His areas of expertise include international development policies and reform of American foreign assistance. Prior he was the Vice-Chair of the Board of the International Center for Research on Women and president of the Overseas Development Council.
Coralie Bryant is currently a Scholar in Residence in the International Development Program at American University of which program she was a co-founder. She has also taught at Sciences-Po in Paris and has been a Director and Professor in the School of Public and International Affairs, Columbia University. Prior to this she was a senior staff member of the World Bank, and a faculty member of the Development Studies Program in USAID. Most recently she has been a research scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Her PhD is from the London School of Economics.
Rev. Séamus Finn is the Director of the Office of Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation for the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. His area of expertise is in socially responsible investment. He represents the Missionary Oblates on the boards of a number of organizations, including the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. He obtained a ThD. in Theology at Boston University.
Richard Kirby is a partner in the securities litigation practice at K&L Gates. His expertise is in the area of complex litigation in corporate, securities, commercial, bankruptcy and administrative law issues and frequently works to resolve disputes where appropriate through alternative dispute resolution. He also frequently represents clients in responding to government law enforcement investigations. Before joining K&L Gates, he practiced law at two other private law firms. Prior to entering private practice he was an attorney in the Office of the General Counsel of the Securities and Exchange Commission from 1978 to 1991 where he served as Assistant General Counsel and Senior Litigation Counsel. He also was a Captain in the U. S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps where he handled appeals from Army Courts Martial and lectured on criminal law at the Judge Advocate General's School at the University of Virginia. Mr. Kirby holds a BS from Lehigh University and a JD from Catholic University of America.
Manish Bapna is the executive vice president and managing director of the World Resource Center since June 2007. His interests and expertise are in international development with a particular focus on rural poverty and natural resources. He was the Executive Director of the Bank Information Center; Senior Economist and task team leader at the World Bank; Advisor to nonprofit development groups including Seva Mandir (a leading grassroots nonprofit in India) and Women’s World Banking (a microfinance support organization); and strategy consultant for McKinsey & Company in the financial services and technology sectors. Bapna received graduate degrees in business and international development from Harvard University and an undergraduate degree in engineering from MIT.
Amar Bhattacharya is Director of the Intergovernmental Group of Twenty-Four on International Monetary Affairs and Development (G-24). The G24 was established in 1971 as a representative body of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of developing countries with the objective of helping to articulate and support the position of developing countries in the discussions of the IMF, World Bank and other relevant fora. Mr. Bhattacharya is therefore closely involved in the ongoing discussions on the impact of and responses to the global economic and financial crisis, including the reform of the Bretton Woods institutions. Prior to taking up his current position, Mr. Bhattacharya had a long-standing career in the World Bank. His last position was as Senior Advisor and Head of the International Policy and Partnership Group in the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network of the World Bank. In this capacity, he was advisor to the President and Senior Management and focal point for the Bank’s engagement with key international groupings and institutions such as the G7/G8, G20, IMF, OECD and the Commonwealth Secretariat, including on the reform of the aid as well as international financial architecture. He has published widely in both fields. Mr. Bhattacharya is an Indian national who completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Delhi and at Brandeis University and his graduate study at Princeton University.
Ron Blackwell is chief economist of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) where he coordinates the economic agenda of the AFL-CIO and represents the federation in a variety of public forums on corporate and economic issues affecting American workers and union strategies. Ron chairs the Economic Policy Working Group of the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD where the labor movement formulates its positions on economic policy at the global level. He is a director of the Baltimore branch of the Richmond Federal Reserve Bank and serves on the Board on Manufacturing and Engineering Design of The National Academies. He also serves on the editorial board of New Labor Forum and is the American correspondent of the Italian journal Sindicalismo. Formerly, he was assistant to the president of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union and chief economist of UNITE. Before joining the labor movement, he was an academic dean in the Seminar College of the New School for Social Research in New York where he taught economics, politics and philosophy. He has an M.A. degree in economics from the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science at the New School. Ron recently received the Nat Weinberg Award for service to the labor movement and social justice.
Jack A. Blum is an attorney in private practice in Washington D.C. His law practice is focused on anti-money laundering compliance, international tax evasion, and the representation of victims of financial crime and fraud. He is also Chairman of the Advisory Board of Tax Justice Network USA. Prior, He was Of Counsel for Baker & Hostetler, Attorneys at Law; Partner at Lobel, Novins & Lamont, Attorneys at Law; Special Counsel for the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate; Senior Partner for Blum Nash & Railsback, Attorneys at Law; and President and General Counsel for the Independent Gasoline Marketers Council, Inc. He obtained a J.D. from Columbia Law School and a B.A. in Psychology from Bard College.
Colin Bradford is a Nonresident Senior Fellow of Global Economy and Development director of the Brookings - CIGI global governance reform project. He has been a leader in the development of the Millennium Development Goals and more recently an advocate for summit reform and the replacement of the G8 by the G20. His expertise is on global economic governance and international economics and development. Prior, He was a Research Professor of Economics and International Relations at American University; Chief Economist to the United States Agency for International Development; Head of Research of the Development Centre of the OECD; Senior Staff of the Strategic Planning Unit of the World Bank; and Associate Professor in the Practice of International Economics and Management at the School of Organization and Management at Yale University. He obtained a Ph.D. from Columbia University (1970) and a B.A. from Yale University (1961).
Daniel D. Bradlow is Professor of Law and Director of the International Legal Studies Program, and Coordinator of the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship and International Visitors Programs at American University Washington College of Law, where he specializes in international economic law. He is a member of the Roster of Experts for the Independent Review Mechanism at the African Development Bank, Research Associate of the Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria and a member of the Board of Directors of ILEAP (International Lawyers and Economists Against Poverty) and of the Governing board of the African Law Institute. His current scholarship focuses on the international financial institutions, creative financing for development, international legal aspects of sustainable and equitable development, and the legal aspects of debt and financial management. He has worked as a Senior Special Fellow in the Legal Aspects of Debt and Financial Management Programme of the United National Institute on Training and Research (UNITAR).
He has worked as a Consultant to the World Dams Commission, MEFMI (The Macroeconomic and Financial Management Institute for Eastern and Southern Africa), Pole-Dette, the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development and the MacArthur Foundation and served as a member of the International Law Association’s Committee on Accountability of International Organizations and as an advisor to the Rethinking Bretton Woods Project. In 1996 he was a Visiting Professor at the Community Law Centre at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. He has lectured in the United States and many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America on both the public and private aspects of international economic and financial law and on the negotiating and structuring of international economic transactions.
Prior to joining WCL, Professor Bradlow was a Research Associate at the International Law Institute and a consultant to the United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations, as well as an attorney in private practice. His publications include books and articles on international financial law, the international financial institutions, foreign investment, the World Bank Inspection Panel, regulatory frameworks for dams and dam safety, globalization and its implications for global economic governance and the changing responsibilities of the World Bank and the IMF in the management of the global economy. Professor Bradlow holds degrees from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, and Northeastern University and Georgetown University in the USA and is a member of the New York and District of Columbia Bars.
Peter Chowla is the Manager, of the Finance and IMF Programme at the Bretton Woodes Project UK. Peter coordinates work on finance and the IMF. His past experience includes working with the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment to research both local and international pollution issues. He has also worked as a journalist in South Korea and managed a student environmental justice activist network in the United States. Peter holds a Masters in Development Management from the London School of Economics, as well as degrees in Engineering and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton School of Business.
John Christensen is a co-founder and director of the Tax Justice Network International Secretariat based in London. He was trained as both an auditor and a development economist. His current area of expertise is in tax havens and their impact on international development. Prior, he was as a company and trust administrator in Jersey, British Channel Islands (a prominent European tax haven) and served as economic adviser to the States of Jersey. He obtained an honors degree in applied economics and an M.Phil in economics and law (University of Reading). He completed post-graduate studies at Templeton College, Oxford and the London School of Economics and Political Sciences.
Peter Gakunu is Chairman at Karumasi Consultancy Limited in Belgium where he is a team leader and coordinator for the support team for the African Ministers of Finance and Governors of Central Banks in preparation for their first dialogue with the International Monetary Fund. He has written and communicated widely on development issues and developed excellent contacts worldwide including Geneva, Brussels, Washington, and New York, and in capitals of many countries. Prior, He was the Executive Director for Africa Group I Constituency at the International Monetary Fund. Before Joining the IMF he held sever positions in the Government of Kenya, including Cabinet Office Advisor, Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources & Wildlife, and Economic Secretary and Director of the Ministry of Finance and Planning. He obtained a BSc in Economics and Statistics and a MA in Economics from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, and an MBA from Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda.
Domenico Lombardi is president of The Oxford Institute for Economic Policy and Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Dr. Lombardi serves as a Managing Editor of the World Economics Journal and sits on the Advisory Boards of the Bretton Woods Committee, the G20 Research Group, the G8 Research Group and the Institute for International Affairs. He has previously been a member of the Executive Boards of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Dr. Lombardi's academic interests focus on the global economy and currencies, global governance, the G20, the G8, the reform of the international financial and monetary system and the establishment of a new aid architecture. His research has been published in several peer-reviewed journals and has been referred to in Congressional hearings and government reports. Dr. Lombardi has recently authored a Report to the IMF Managing Director on IMF Reform.Dr. Lombardi has an undergraduate degree in Financial Economics from Bocconi University, Milan, and he did his postgraduate studies at Harvard University, The London School of Economics and Oxford University (Nuffield College), from which he holds a Ph.D. in Economics.
Click here to access Lombardi's personal homepage.
Matthew Martin is the director of Debt Relief International and Development Finance International, both non-profit organizations which build developing countries’ capacities to design and implement strategies for managing external and domestic debt, and external official and private development financing. Prior, he worked at the Overseas Development Institute in London; the International Development Centre in Oxford, the World Bank, and as a consultant to many donors, African governments, international organisations and NGOs.
Victor Murinde is Professor of Development Finance at Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham. He holds a BA(Economics) from Makerere University, an MSc (Banking & Finance) and a PhD (Financial Economics) from University of Wales, Cardiff; and a Doctoris Honoris Causa from Tallinn Technical University. His research interests are broad, but current work focuses on two areas: (1) Financial institutions and markets and (2) Corporate finance and investments. The research has been funded mainly by grants from the European Commission, the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the ESRC and the Leverhulme Trust. He has published over 100 contributions to the economics and finance literature, including articles in many leading journals. Drawing from his research and publications, he worked as a consultant to many international organisations, including the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the UN, UNCTAD, and the EC.
Chukwuma F. Obidegwu is currently a private consultant with over 30 years of years experience in international development, economic and public policy. His main interests in the public policy arena include development strategies and policies for good governance, economic growth and poverty reduction. His current focus is on public financial management, the role and the management of foreign assistance, post conflict socio-economic recovery, capacity and institutional development, and economic management in natural resource rich countries. Until his retirement in 2007, he served as an economist at the World Bank for 27 years in various positions including Lead Economist for Poverty Reduction and Economic Management to the Africa Region; Team Leader/Country Economist for Rwanda; Senior Economist in the Strategic Planning and Review Department; Resident Senior Economist in the Uganda Office. He obtained a Ph.D. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, a MBA from the University of Toronto in Canada, and a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Nottingham.
Thomas Palley is the founder and director of the Economics for Democratic & Open Societies Project. The goal of the project is to stimulate public discussion about what kinds of economic arrangements and conditions are needed to promote democracy and open society. His expertise includes Economics of globalization, financial markets, and macroeconomic policy. Prior, he was Chief Economist to the US – China Economic and Security Review Commission; Director of the Globalization Reform Project at the Open Society Institute; Assistant Director of Public Policy at the AFL-CIO. He obtained a B.A. degree from Oxford University and a M.A. degree in International Relations and Ph.D. in Economics, both from Yale University.
Liane Schalatek is the Associate Director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation North America. Her area of expertise is global governance, specifically international trade and finance, as well as climate change finance and especially the promotion of gender equality and women's empowerment Prior, she was Program Officer for Transatlantic Economic Relations at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Washington. She is a formally trained newspaper editor and has worked as a free-lance journalist. She obtained a M.A. in Political Science and Political Economy from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg/GERMANY and holds an M.A. in International Affairs from George Washington University.
Shari Spiegel is a Principal at New Holland Capital, PLC, an advisor to APG/ABP (the Dutch Civil Servants Pension Fund). She is a Senior Fellow at The Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD) at Columbia University and Co-Chair of IPD's Debt Task Force at Columbia University. Her areas of expertise include capital market development, financial markets, sovereign debt management, and macroeconomics. Prior to New Holland she was Executive Director of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia University; Director of Lazard LLC; CEO and co-founder of Budapest Investment Management Company (a Budapest Bank subsidiary); an Advisor the the Hungarian central bank; and also held positions at Citibank and Drexel Burnham Lambert. She obtained an MA in economics from Princeton University and a BA in applied mathematics and economics from Northwestern University.
Celine Tan is a Lecturer in Law at the Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham, UK. Her expertise is on international economic regulation with a focus on international development financing law, policy and governance. She is also interested in the intersections between law and development, gender, human rights and the environment. Prior to this, she was a researcher with the Third World Network and visiting lecturer at the School of Law at the University of Warwick. She obtained her PhD and held a Postgraduate Research Fellowship at the School of Law at the University of Warwick.
Paul Nehru Tennassee is the Coordinator of International Co-Curricular Programs and Adjunct Professor at the University of the District of Columbia. His expertise is international institutions, trade unions and CSOs in the Americas and around the world, and education and development. He is a frequent contributor to National Alliance, Guyana Journal and Producer/Host of a television program entitled CARIBNATION. Prior, he was the Director of the Washington Liaison Office and Permanent Representative to the United Nations for the World Confederation of Labor; Director of International Affairs for the National Alliance of Postal and Federal Employees; Executive Member of the Confederation of Latin American Workers (CLAT); General Secretary of the Caribbean Workers Council; Deputy Director of the Caribbean Institute of Social Formation; and a Presidential Candidate in Guyana’s 1985 & 1992 elections. He holds a Diploma in Social Studies from Oxford University; BA (Caribbean-Latin America History)York University, Canada; MSc History (Venezuela & Latin America History) Universidad Central de Venezuela; MA (Government) Johns Hopkins, USA; and ABD in International Relations & Comparative Studies) York University Canada.
