- Fellow type
- Honorary Fellow
- Year elected
- 2021
A globally renowned economist, policymaker, and higher education leader, Minouche Shafik has spent the past three decades in several leadership roles across a range of notable international, national and academic institutions. Presently chairing a major review of international development for the UK government, she previously held the presidencies at Columbia University and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) where she drove academic excellence, improved the student experience and raised substantial charitable support.
Prior to her presidencies, Minouche Shafik was Deputy Governor at the Bank of England. In this capacity, she led a review to address wrongful conduct in the financial markets, managed a balance sheet of approximately $600 billion, and served on all policy committees of the Bank. This included a seat on the Monetary Policy Committee, the Financial Policy Committee and the Board of the Prudential Regulatory Authority. Prior to this, she served as Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, providing leadership during a geopolitically unsettled time which encompassed the European debt crisis and Arab Spring. Simultaneously, she led a modernisation effort in the approach used by member countries to build economic capacity and expanded access to training for thousands of government officials around the world. She was also responsible for the IMF’s $1 billion administrative budget and its substantial pension fund.
When serving as Permanent Secretary of the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, the department was ranked the best performing in government. She also played a crucial role in securing the UK government’s commitment to giving 0.7 per cent of GDP to fighting poverty in developing countries. Appointed the youngest-ever Vice President of the World Bank at the age of 36, she was part of the team that produced the institution’s first-ever report on the environment, led work on infrastructure and private sector investment, and advised governments in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall. She led policy work and published books on the prospects for economic growth in the Middle East as part of the World Bank’s support to the Oslo peace process in the 1990s.
Minouche Shafik completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, before completing an MSc in economics at LSE and a DPhil at St Antony’s College, Oxford. Holding a life peerage, she currently sits as a crossbencher. In 2020, she received a damehood for services to the global economy. She also holds an honorary fellowship at her Oxford alma mater, St. Antony’s College, has received six honorary doctorates, and is a Gates Foundation trustee. She has also served as deputy chair and a trustee of the British Museum, the Council of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and a Governor of the National Institute for Economic and Social Research. She has previously taught at Georgetown University and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and has published extensively. Her most recent published book, 'What We Owe Each Other', has been a global success and has been translated into 12 languages. She became an honorary member of the British Academy in 2021.