Kemal Derviş

Vice President and Director, Global Economy and Development, and The Edward M. Bernstein Scholar, The Brookings Institution; Adjunct Professor, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University

Kemal Derviş is currently vice president and director of Global Economy and Development. Until February 2009, he was the Executive Head of the United Nations Development Programme. In 2001-2002, as Minister of Economic Affairs and the Treasury of Turkey, Derviş was responsible for launching Turkey’s successful recovery from a devastating financial crisis. Derviş is a Member of the Board of Overseers of Sabanci University in Istanbul and contributes to the work of that university, particularly on European and Regional issues. He also chairs the International Advisory Board of Akbank.

Prior to his tenure as Minister of Economic Affairs, Derviş had a 22-year career at the World Bank, where he became Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa in 1996 and Vice President for Poverty Reduction and Economic Management in 2000. At the World Bank he also managed work on the transition of Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin wall, trade and financial sector.

Derviş earned his Bachelor and Master’s degrees in economics from the London School of Economics, and his Ph.D. from Princeton University. He taught economics at Princeton and the Middle East Technical Universities before joining the World Bank. He currently co-teaches a graduate course on Global Economic Governance as Adjunct Professor at Columbia University.

Source: University Programs and Events Planning Resources, February 2013