Tuesday, 6th of October, the Financial Times published a letter signed by Prof Brigitte Granville-CGR Director- among others leading economists, calling for IMF to focus the best leader irrespective of region.
The letter advocates for a “Transparent and timely search process aimed at finding the best qualified person”, that combines “a proven economics background with appropriate political and diplomatic expertise and capacity to engineer thoughtful policies to counter possible new shocks”, highlighting the importance of a “meritocratic process that offers constructive outcomes for advanced and developing economies”.
You can read the first paragraphs of the letter below:
“Sir, In the coming months, governments will choose the leader of the International Monetary Fund for the next five years. The mandate given to Christine Lagarde, managing director since 2011, expires in July 2016. She may choose to stand again and the signatories below in no way criticise her stewardship of the IMF, to which she has provided vigorous leadership during a period of great monetary, economic and financial challenge. However, a European has presided over the fund since it was established more than 70 years ago. A structural change in the appointment process for the managing directorship is overdue.We advocate a transparent and timely search process aimed at finding the best qualified person. If this were to culminate in an appointee from Asia, Africa or Latin America, then we would applaud such a result, which would be consistent with global economic shifts in the past 15 years”.
You can access the complete letter with a full list of signatories in the following link:
Signed by:
Lord (Meghnad) Desai
Emeritus Professor, London School of Economics and Political Science
Franco Bassanini
Former Chairman, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti
Mark Burgess
Former Managing Director, Future Fund, Australia
Hans Eichel
Former Finance Minister, Germany
Brigitte Granville
Professor, Queen Mary University of London
Charles Goodhart
Emeritus Professor, London School of Economics and Political Science
Akinari Horii
Special Adviser and Member of the Board, Canon Institute for Global Studies
David Kihangire
Regional Financial Policy Adviser, East African Community
Oscar Lewisohn
Chairman, Soditic Limited
Ruud Lubbers
Former Prime Minister, Netherlands
Gerard Lyons
Chief Economic Adviser to the Mayor of London, Greater London Authority
Kishore Mahbubani
Professor and Dean, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore
David Marsh
Managing Director, Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum
Boyd McCleary
Former Governor, British Virgin Islands
Marcello Messori
Professor, LUISS Guido Carli University
Marcello Minenna
Professor, Bocconi University
Athanasios Orphanides
Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Vicky Pryce
Former Joint Head, UK government economic service
Edoardo Reviglio
Professor, International University College of Turin
Paul van Seters
Professor, Tilburg University
Lord (Robert) Skidelsky
Emeritus Professor, Warwick University
Michael Stürmer
Chief Correspondent, Die Welt
Duvvuri Subbarao
Former Governor, Reserve Bank of India
Shumpei Takemori
Professor, Keio University
Niels Thygesen
Emeritus Professor, Copenhagen University
Lord (Christopher) Tugendhat
Former Vice-President, European Commission
Marsha Vande Berg
Former Chief Executive, Pacific Pension Institute
Ernst Welteke
Former President, Deutsche Bundesbank
Jack Wigglesworth
Former Chairman, London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange
Songzuo Xiang
Professor, Renmin University
Ben Shenglin
Professor, Zhejiang University
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