Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander was a pioneering Black professional and civil rights activist of the early-to-mid-20th century. In 1921, Mossell Alexander was the second African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. and the first one to receive one in economics in the United States. In 1927, she was first Black woman to receive a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and went on to become the first Black woman to practice law in the state. She was also the first national president of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, serving from 1919 to 1923.
Kaushik Basu is an economist who was Chief Economist of the World Bank from 2012 to 2016 and Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India from 2009 to 2012. He is the C. Marks Professor of International Studies and Professor of Economics at Cornell University, and academic advisory board member of upcoming Plaksha University. He began a three-year term as President of the International Economic Association in June 2017. From 2009 to 2012, during the United Progressive Alliance's second term, Basu served as the Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India. Kaushik Basu is winner of the Humboldt Research Award 2021.
Mahmoud Mohieldin, is an economist with more than 30 years of experience in international finance and development. He is the UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for Egypt. He is an Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund. He has been the United Nations Special Envoy on Financing the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda since February 2020. He was the Minister of Investment of Egypt from 2004-2010, and most recently, served as the World Bank Group Senior Vice President for the 2030 Development Agenda, United Nations Relations and Partnerships. His roles at the World Bank also included Managing Director, responsible for Human Development, Sustainable Development, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management, Finance and Private Sector Development, and the World Bank Institute; World Bank President's Special Envoy on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Post-2015 Development Agenda, and Financing for Development; and Corporate Secretary and Executive Secretary to the Development Committee of the World Bank Group's Board of Governors. Dr Mohieldin also served on several Boards of Directors in the Central Bank of Egypt and the corporate sector. He was a member of the Commission on Growth and Development and was selected for the Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum in 2005. His professional experience extends into the academic arena as a Professor of Economics and Finance at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University and as a Visiting Professor at several renowned Universities in Egypt, Korea, the UAE, the UK and the USA. He is a member of the International Advisory Board of Durham University Business School. He also holds leading positions in national, regional and international research centres and associations. He has authored numerous publications and articles in leading journals in the fields of economics, finance and development.
Claudia Dale Goldin is an American economic historian and labor economist. She is the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University. In October 2023, she was awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, "for having advanced our understanding of women's labor market outcomes”. She was the third woman to win the award, and the first woman to win the award solo.
Clifton Reginald Wharton Jr. is an American university president, corporate executive and former United States deputy secretary of state. In his multiple careers, he has been an African-American pioneer.
Mohamed Aly El-Erian is an Egyptian-American economist and businessman. He is President of Queens' College, Cambridge, and chief economic adviser at Allianz, the corporate parent of PIMCO where he was CEO and co-chief investment officer (2007–14). He was chair of President Obama's Global Development Council (2012–17), and is a columnist for Bloomberg View, and a contributing editor to the Financial Times.
Emmett John Rice was an American economist, academic, bank executive, and member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. He served with the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II, taught at Cornell University during the 1950s, and was a noted expert in the monetary systems of developing countries. Susan Rice, former United States Ambassador to the United Nations and National Security Advisor to Barack Obama, is his daughter.
Nemat Talaat Shafik, Baroness Shafik ; Arabic: نعمت شفيق, widely known as Minouche Shafik, is an Egyptian-born British and American economist who has been serving as the 20th president of Columbia University since July 2023. She previously served as president and vice chancellor of the London School of Economics from 2017 to 2023. She also serves on the board of directors of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Olivia S. Mitchell is an American economist and the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans Professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Her interests focus on pensions and social security, and she is the executive director of the Pension Research Council, the oldest U.S. center devoted to scholarship and policy-relevant research on retirement security. She also heads Wharton's Boettner Center for Pensions and Retirement Research.
Stijn Claessens is a Dutch economist who currently serves as the Head of Financial Stability Policy department of the Bank for International Settlements. He worked for fourteen years at World Bank beginning in 1987 until 2001 where he assumed various positions including that of Lead Economist. Following his tenure at the World Bank he became Professor of International Finance Policy at the University of Amsterdam where he remained for three years and still is on the faculty. Stijn has many distinguished academic publications and his work has been cited in many outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The Economist, The Washington Post and various other publications and he has appeared in several television programs.
Jeni Klugman is a development economist. She is managing director of the Institute for Women, Peace and Security at Georgetown University and a fellow at the Kennedy School of Government's Women in Public Policy Program at Harvard University. She was formerly Director of Gender and Development at the World Bank Group, where she served as lead spokesperson on gender equality issues and was responsible for developing strategic directions to support the institution's gender and development priorities. She also serves or has served on several advisory boards, including the World Economic Forum's advisory board on Sustainability and Competitiveness, and those related to the work of the Council on Foreign Relations, Plan International, International Civil Society Network, UNDP 2013 World Report on Democratic Governance, and a European Union research program on GDP and beyond. Prior to taking up this position in August 2011, Klugman was the director and lead author of three global Human Development Reports published by the United Nations Development Programme: Overcoming Barriers: Human Mobility and Development (2009); The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development (2010); and Sustainability and Equity: a Better Future for All (2011). From 1992 to 2008, she held various positions at the World Bank, focusing in particular on poverty, inequality, and human development in low-income countries in Africa, Europe, and Asia. Klugman has published a number of books, papers and reports on topics ranging from poverty reduction strategies and labor markets to conflict, health reform, education, and decentralization. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from the Australian National University, as well as postgraduate degrees in Law and Development Economics from Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar Jeni is the daughter of former Labor MP, Richard Klugman, and civil libertarian Kristine Klugman.
Erik Berglöf is a Swedish economist, currently the Chief Economist of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the Beijing-based multilateral development bank established in 2016 with a mission to improve social and economic outcomes in Asia. In March 2019 Erik Berglöf was appointed to the European Council's High Level Group of Wise Persons on the European financial architecture for development where Berglöf and eight other economists will suggest changes to the EU's development finance structure. In 2017–2018 Erik Berglöf served on the secretariat of the G20 Eminent Persons Group on Global Financial Governance and on the Governing Board of the Institute for New Economic Thinking in New York.
Gikas A. Hardouvelis is a Greek economist and former senior government official serving as chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Bank of Greece (NBG). He was the Minister of Finance of the Hellenic Republic from June 2014 to January 2015.
Matthias Chika Mordi is from Delta State, in Nigeria and was a refugee during Nigeria’s civil war. He is an economist by training and a banker. He is the Chief Executive Officer of National Competitiveness Council of Nigeria and is the current Chairman of United Capital PLC. He is an Honourable Senior member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria and alternate president of the West African Institute of Bankers (2005-2008).
Lisa DeNell Cook is an American economist who has served as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors since May 23, 2022. She is the first African American woman and first woman of color to sit on the Board. Before her appointment to the Federal Reserve, she was elected to the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
The Sadie Collective is the first American non-profit organization which aims to increase the representation of African-American women in economics and related fields. It was founded by Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman and Fanta Traore in August 2018 and is named for the first African-American economist, Sadie T. M. Alexander.
The National Economic Association (NEA) is a learned society established in 1969, focused on initiatives in the field of economics.
Hanan Morsy is an Egyptian economist, who serves as the Deputy Executive Secretary and Chief Economist of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, since January 2022.
Nina Banks is an American economist who is an associate professor of economics at Bucknell University and former president of the National Economic Association. She is known for her research on the contributions of early women economists, particularly Sadie Alexander. She has also published work explaining the economic value of Black women's community activism.
Uma Lele is an agricultural economist, currently at the Institute of Economic Growth at the University of Delhi, India. She has spent much of her career working with the World Bank and other international organizations.
