Ian Goldin is the Director of the Oxford University’s James Martin 21st Century School which aims to provide solutions to some of the great challenges of our time.
The School covers the frontiers of physical, medical and biological science as well as climate change and environmental science, the social sciences and the humanities. Ian is also a Professorial Fellow at the University’s Balliol College. In addition to his current academic activities Ian is a Non-Executive Director on a number of Boards.
From 2001 to 2006, Ian was at the World Bank, where as Vice President where he had wide-ranging responsibilities. These included being a member of the Bank’s Executive Management Committee and having responsibility for all major shareholder relations, including OECD countries.
From 1995 to 2001 he was Chief Executive and Managing Director of the Development Bank of Southern Africa. Under his leadership, the Bank was transformed to become commercially independent and the leading agent of infrastructure development in the fourteen countries of Southern Africa. It financed the provision of water, electricity and other basic services to over 500 municipalities and supported public utilities, agriculture and small business initiatives throughout Africa. During this period, Ian served on several Government committees and Boards, was adviser to President Mandela accompanying him on many state visits and was Finance Director for South Africa’s Olympic Bid.
Previously, Ian worked at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London, as Principal Economist, and prior to that at the OECD Development Centre in Paris, where he directed the Programs on Trade, Environment and Sustainable Development.
Ian holds a BSc and BA (Hons) degree from the University of Cape Town, an MSc from the London School of Economics and an MA and DPhil from the University of Oxford. He has received numerous awards and prizes, and has been knighted (Chevalier) by France and was nominated Global Leader of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum.
His recent book, Globalisation for Development: Trade, Finance, Aid, Migration and Policy has sold out and a new edition is being launched by Palgrave and the World Bank. Princeton University Press is shortly to publish his book on migration, entitled Exceptional People: How Migration Shaped our World and Will Define our Future
He is an outstanding speaker on global future trends in technology, science, climate change, demography and other factors that will have an impact on corporations and government.