SET is governed by a committee of international experts who oversee the programme and provide strategic direction.

K. Y. Amoako

K. Y. Amoako is the President of the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET). Previously, Mr. Amoako worked at the World Bank for two decades, where he became one of the first Africans to rise to a senior position. During his 10-year stint as the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Mr. Amoako conceived and led a path-breaking and first-ever African initiative – a survey of 28 countries, the African Governance Report – to measure and monitor good governance and to determine institution and capacity gaps that undermined it. Mr. Amoako has been Director of CARE since 2008. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Ghana at Legon and has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Debapriya Bhattacharya

Debapriya Bhattacharya is the Distinguished Fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Bangladesh. Prior to joining CPD he worked as a Senior Research Fellow at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS). He was the first Executive Director of the CPD (1999-2007). He is a macro-economist and public policy analyst. He had been the Special Adviser on LDCs to the Secretary General, UNCTAD (2009-2010). He was the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the WTO, UN office, and other international organisations in Geneva (2007-2009).

Shanta Devarajan

Shanta Devarajan is the Chief Economist of the World Bank’s Middle East and North Africa Region. Since joining the World Bank in 1991, he has been a Principal Economist and Research Manager for Public Economics in the Development Research Group, and the Chief Economist of the Human Development Network, the South Asia Region and Africa Region. He was the director of the World Development Report 2004, Making Services Work for Poor People. Before 1991, he was on the faculty of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. The author or co-author of over 100 publications, Mr. Devarajan’s research covers public economics, trade policy, natural resources and the environment, and general equilibrium modeling of developing countries. Born in Sri Lanka, Mr. Devarajan received his B.A. in mathematics from Princeton University and his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Louise Fox

Louise Fox is USAID’s Chief Economist. She guides the Agency on economics-based decision making and is responsible for keeping USAID’s economists on the cutting edge of ideas in development economics. Before joining USAID, Dr. Fox served as a Visiting Professor of Development Economic Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and as a consultant in development economics, specializing in employment, labor markets, gender, social service delivery and poverty reduction. Prior to joining UC Berkeley, she had a distinguished career at the World Bank where she advised governments in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe on how to develop, implement, and evaluate effective policies for employment, social security and poverty reduction.

Justin Yifu Lin

Justin Yifu Lin is the former World Bank Chief Economist and Senior Vice President, Development Economics. In his capacity, Mr. Lin guided the Bank’s intellectual leadership and played a key role in shaping the economic research agenda of the institution. Building on a distinguished career as one of China’s leading economists, Mr. Lin is undertaking an ambitious research program that examines the industrialisation of rapidly developing countries and sheds new light on the causes of lagging growth in poor regions. He took up his World Bank position on June 2, 2008, after serving for 15 years as Professor and Founding Director of the China Centre for Economic Research (CCER) at Peking University.

Margaret McMillan

Margaret McMillan is a professor of economics at Tufts University and a Research Associate in the NBER’s program on International Trade and Investment. From 2009-2011 she was the Director of the Development Strategies and Governance Division of the International Food Policy Research Institute where she is currently a Senior Research Fellow. McMillan holds a Ph.D. in economics (with distinction) from Columbia University an MPA from Princeton University and B.S. in mathematics and economics (summa cum laude) from Boston University. Before coming to academia, she taught math in the Republic of Mali, managed a project for the World Bank in the United Republic of Tanzania and worked as a financial analyst at Lehman Brothers. McMillan’s research interests lie in the areas of international trade, investment and development.

Dani Rodrik

Dani Rodrik is the Ford Foundation Professor of International Economy at Harvard Kennedy School. He has published widely in the areas of economic development, international economics, and political economy. His current research focuses on industrialisation and structural change in developing economies, the determinants of liberal versus democracy, and interaction of ideas and interests in policy change. He is the recipient of the inaugural Albert O. Hirschman Prize of the Social Sciences Research Council and of the Leontief Award for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought.