People
The commission is led by three co-chairs and two academic directors. They are joined by commissioners from a wide variety of backgrounds, and are assisted by the secretariat. Further commissioners will be announced.
The Pathways for Prosperity Commission (2018 – 2020) has now concluded. The Co-chairs, Commissioners and Secretariat are no longer serving in this capacity beyond January 2020.
Melinda Gates
Melinda Gates is co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Along with Bill Gates, she shapes and approves the foundation’s strategies, reviews results, and sets the overall direction of the organisation. Together, they meet with grantees and partners to further the foundation’s goal of improving equity in the United States and around the world.
Through her work at the foundation over the last fifteen years, Melinda has seen first-hand that empowering women and girls can bring transformational improvements in the health and prosperity of families, communities and societies. In 2012, Melinda spearheaded the London Summit on Family Planning, which adopted the goal of delivering contraceptives to an additional 120 million women in developing countries by 2020. Her work has led her to increasingly focus on gender equity as a path to meaningful change.
The second of four children, Melinda grew up in Dallas, Texas. She received a bachelor’s degree in computer science and economics from Duke University in 1986 and a master’s in business administration from the Fuqua School of Business in 1987.
After joining Microsoft Corp. that year, she distinguished herself as a leader in the development of multimedia products and was later appointed Microsoft’s General Manager of Information Products. In 1996, Melinda left Microsoft to focus on her philanthropic work and family.
Sri Mulyani Indrawati
Sri Mulyani Indrawati has been the Minister of Finance in Indonesia since 2016; she previously served in this post from 2005 – 2010. In June 2010 she was appointed as Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of the World Bank Group.
As Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of the World Bank Group, Indrawati was responsible for the bank’s operations worldwide. She worked closely with client countries and member states to put operational strategies in place that address new and persistent development challenges in support of the World Bank’s goals of ending poverty and promoting shared prosperity.
Indrawati frequently represented the World Bank Group at the G20 and in other international fora. She was also responsible for the strategic direction and policy framework of the Bank’s Fund for the Poorest, IDA, one of the largest sources of assistance for the world’s 77 poorest countries.
Indrawati chaired the World Bank Group’s Advisory Council on Gender and Development, which brings together global leaders and experts on gender issues, including from the private sector.
Indrawati’s earlier positions include head of the Indonesian National Development Planning Agency, executive director at the International Monetary Fund, faculty member at the University of Indonesia, and visiting professor at the Andrew Young School of Public Policy at Georgia State University.
Indrawati holds a doctorate in economics from the University of Illinois and a bachelor of arts in economics from the University of Indonesia.
Strive Masiyiwa
Strive Masiyiwa is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Econet Group, a pan-African telecommunications, media and technology company with operations and investments in over 20 countries.
Masiyiwa serves on a number of international boards including Unilever Plc, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Council on Foreign Relations’ Global Advisory Board, the Africa Progress Group, and the Hilton Foundation's Humanitarian Prize Jury. Masiyiwa also serves as Chairman of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), a position he took over after Kofi Annan’s term.
As a philanthropist, Masiyiwa is a member of the Giving Pledge, and his contributions to education, health and development have been widely recognized. Masiyiwa and his wife finance the Higher Life Foundation, which has supported the education of over 250,000 African orphans in 20 years. Their family foundation provides scholarships to over 40,000 African orphans every year.
Masiyiwa has been selected twice, in 2014 and 2017, to Fortune Magazine’s list of the “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders”.
Over the last few years, Masiyiwa has devoted his time to mentoring the next generation of African entrepreneurs through his Facebook page, which has a growing followership of nearly 3-million young people from across the continent. Facebook has identified his platform as the most engaging of any business leader in the world.
Stefan Dercon
Stefan Dercon is Professor of Economic Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government and the Economics Department, and a Fellow of Jesus College. He is also Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies.
Between 2011 and 2017, he was Chief Economist of the Department of International Development (DFID), the government department in charge with the UK’s aid policy and spending. In this position, he provided strategic advice, and was responsible for ensuring the use of evidence in decision making. Previously, he held positions at the University of Leuven (Belgium), UNU-WIDER (Helsinki, Finland) and Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia).
His research interests concern what keeps some people and countries poor: the failures of markets, governments and politics, mainly in Africa, and how to achieve change. Current research work focuses on the psychological challenges of poverty, the political economy of development, the challenges of industrialisation in Africa, the challenges and opportunities of new technologies, and how to finance responses to natural disasters and protracted humanitarian crises.
His latest book, “Dull Disasters? How Planning Ahead Will Make A Difference” was published in 2016, and provides a blueprint for renewed application of science, improved decision making, better preparedness, and pre-arranged finance in the face of natural disasters.
He studied economics and philosophy at the Universit of Leuven (Belgium) and holds an MPhil and DPhil in Economics from the University of Oxford.
Benno Ndulu
Professor Benno Ndulu was appointed Governor of the Central Bank of Tanzania in January 2008. He has presided over Tanzania’s macroeconomic stabilisation and has implemented prudent policies overseeing its strong economic performance over the past years. He has supported the expansion of Tanzania’s financial inclusion by licensing commercial banks, introducing agent banking, and tapping into the growth of mobile financial services.
He started his career at the University of Dar es Salaam in the early 1980s before joining the World Bank as a lead economist covering east Africa.
Ndulu is best known for his involvement in setting up and developing one of the most effective research and training networks in Africa, the African Economic Research Consortium. He served as its first Research Director and later as its Executive Director.
He received an honorary doctorate from the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague in 1997 recognition of his contributions to Capacity Building and Research on Africa.
Following his Ph.D. degree in economics from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, Ndulu taught economics at the University of Dar es Salaam, and has published and taught widely on growth, regional integration, adjustment, governance, trade, and investments.
Daniela Rus
Daniela Rus is the Andrew (1956) and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT. Rus’ research interests are in robotics, artificial intelligence, and data science.
The focus of her work is developing the science and engineering of autonomy, toward the long-term objective of enabling a future with machines pervasively integrated into the fabric of life, supporting people with physical tasks.
Rus serves as the Director of the Toyota-CSAIL Joint Research Center, whose focus is the advancement of AI research and its applications to intelligent vehicles. She is a member of the Toyota Research Institute advisory board.
Rus is a Class of 2002 MacArthur Fellow, a fellow of ACM, AAAI and IEEE, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is the recipient of the 2017 Engelberger Robotics Award from the Robotics Industries Association. She earned her PhD in Computer Science from Cornell University.
Rus has also worked on two collaborative projects with the Pilobolus Dance company at the intersection of Technology and Art. Seraph, a pastoral story about human-machine friendship, was choreographed in 2010 and performed in 2010-2011 in Boston and New York City. The Umbrella Project, a participatory performance exploring group behavior, was choreographed in 2012 and performed at PopTech 2012, in Cambridge, Baltimore, and Singapore.
Kamal Bhattacharya
Dr Kamal Bhattacharya is the CEO of an EdTech company, Mojochat. Kamal also holds an appointment as Senior Lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management.
Kamal was previously Chief Innovation Officer of Safaricom’s Innovation Hub, based in Nairobi. Safaricom is Kenya’s largest telecom company and provider of the nation’s mobile money service, M-Pesa.
Prior to joining Safaricom, Kamal was the Chief Executive Officer of iHub in Nairobi, the globally recognised organisation that supports tech entrepreneurs and has been the main catalyst for regional and tech acceleration as well as a role model for tech hubs across emerging markets. Kamal helped remodel the tech hub and shape its strategies.
Previously, Kamal was the inaugural director and Vice President of IBM Research – Africa, based in Nairobi, Kenya and Johannesburg, South Africa. He was part of the team behind several of IBM’s investment in the next-generation technology talent in Africa
Kamal has lived on four continents and is a computer scientist by profession. He received his PhD in Theoretical Physics from the Goettingen University in Germany.
Maria Ramos
Maria Ramos is the former Chief Executive Officer of Absa Group Limited, a diversified financial services group with operations in 12 African markets.
Before joining Absa (previously Barclays Africa Group Ltd) as Group Chief Executive in March 2009, she served as the Chief Executive of Transnet Ltd, the South African state-owned freight transport and logistics service provider, for five years. This followed a seven year tenure as Director-General of the National Treasury in South Africa.
An accomplished academic, who has taught at various institutions, Ms Ramos obtained an Institute of Bankers’ Diploma (CAIB) in 1983. She followed this with a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in 1986, a Bachelor of Commerce Honours in Economics (also from Wits) in 1987 and a Master of Science (Economics) from the University of London in 1992.
She is also a recipient of honorary doctorates from the Stellenbosch and Free State universities. Ms Ramos led Transnet through a massive financial, cultural and operational turnaround. During her tenure as Director-General of the National Treasury (formerly the Department of Finance), she played a key role in transforming the Treasury into one of the most effective and efficient state departments in the post-apartheid administration.
She has successively been ranked in Fortune magazine’s annual survey of the 50 most powerful women in business for a number of years running.
Her contribution has been recognized through numerous awards. She was named CNBC Africa Woman Leader of the Year (2011), and was awarded the Wits Business School’s Management Excellence Award (2010). She was named the Sunday Times Business Times Business Leader of the Year in 2005 and Businesswoman of the Year by the SA Businesswomen’s Association in 2001.
She has in the past served as a non-executive and independent director on the boards of Sanlam Ltd, Remgro Ltd and SABMiller PLC, and currently serves on the Boards of Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA and Business Unity South Africa.
She is also a member of the Group of Thirty; the Global Board of Advisors, Council on Foreign Relations (U.S.) and the World Economic Forum’s International Business Council.
Shanta Devarajan
Shanta Devarajan is the Professor of Development Studies at Georgetown Law School of Foreign Service.
Previously, he was the Senior Director for Development Economics (DEC) at the World Bank and 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 a 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.
A member of the Overseas Development Institute’s Board of Trustees, and the author or co-author of more than 100 publications, Mr. Devarajan’s research covers public economics, trade policy, natural resources and the environment, and general equilibrium modelling 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.
Shivani Siroya
Shivani Siroya is the founder and CEO of Tala, a company that facilitates financial access to small business owners around the world by providing mobile financial tracking tools and direct flexible financing in order to help these businesses and their communities lift themselves out of poverty. Tala’s smartphone app uses alternative data to deliver instant credit and help customers build their financial identities.
Prior to founding Tala, Shivani held a variety of positions in global health, microfinance, and investment banking, including with the United Nations Population Fund, Health Net, Citigroup and UBS.
Shivani is an Aspen Institute Finance Leader Fellow, a WEF Young Global Leader, Senior TED Fellow and Ashoka Fellow. She is also on the board of Stellar.org.
Shivani is a blogger for the Huffington Post and has written on Microfinance 2.0 as well as small business growth in the U.S. She is also on the board of ReWork and Young Women Social Entrepreneurs.
She holds a M.P.H in Health Economics and International Policy from Columbia University and a B.A. in International Relations from Wesleyan University.
Nadiem Makarim
Nadiem Makarim is the Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia and was the founder of GOJEK, the first technology company of Indonesian origin that has achieved the rare financial ‘unicorn’ status.
GOJEK is the largest consumer on-demand platform and cashless payment system (through GOPAY) in Indonesia, with market leadership in key categories such as ride-hailing, online food delivery, instant courier, and payments.
Recently listed on the prestigious 2017 Fortune Change the World List, GOJEK has empowered more than 1,000,000 driver partners and micro-merchants combined.
Nadiem started his career as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company for 3 years. After earning his MBA, Nadiem began his entrepreneurial career by establishing Zalora Indonesia, of which he as Co-Founder and Managing Editor. After leaving Zalora, Nadiem served as Chief Innovation Officer at Kartuku, an Indonesian Third Party Processor and Payment Service Provider. He then focused his work on GOJEK, which he has pioneered since 2010. Nadiem holds a BA from Brown University, majoring in International Relations. He received an MBA degree from Harvard University in 2012.
Nadiem’s recent achievements include:
- 2017 Entrepreneur of the Year Award from EY, Indonesia
- 2016 Asian of the Year Award from The Straits Times, Singapore
- 2016 ASEAN Entrepreneur Award from the World Knowledge Forum, Korea
Sigrid Kaag
Sigrid Kaag is the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation in the Netherlands.
Previously, Ms Kaag acted as Special Adviser to the Secretary‑General and served as the Special Coordinator of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons-United Nations Joint Mission to eliminate the chemical weapons programme of the Syrian Arab Republic, from October 2013 to September 2014. She has a wealth of experience in political, humanitarian and development affairs alongside her diplomatic service, including in the Middle East.
She previously served as Assistant Secretary‑General with the United Nations Development Programme from 2010 to 2013 and as Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Jordan from 2007 to 2010. Prior to that, Ms. Kaag held several senior positions with UNICEF, the International Organization for Migration, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. Before joining the United Nations system in 1994, she served her country in its Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Ms. Kaag also worked for Shell International Petroleum Company in London.
Ms. Kaag holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Middle East studies from the American University in Cairo, a Master of Philosophy in international relations from St. Antony’s College, Oxford University and a master’s degree in Middle East studies from Exeter University.
Vera Songwe
Vera Songwe took up her role as the United Nations Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) on 3 August 2017 at the level of Under Secretary-General. She brings to ECA and the position of Executive Secretary, a long-standing track record of providing policy advice on development and a wealth of experience in delivering development results for Africa, as well as a demonstrated strong and clear strategic vision for the continent.
Prior to joining the ECA, Ms. Songwe was Regional Director of the International Finance Corporation, covering West and Central Africa. In addition, she continues to serve as a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Africa Growth Initiative. She is also a member of the African Union institutional reform team under the direction of the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, and a board member of the African Leadership Network and the Mo Ibrahim Foundation.
Previously, she was Country Director for the World Bank, covering Cape Verde, the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Senegal. She was also Adviser to the Managing Director of the World Bank for Africa, Europe and Central and South Asia and a lead Country Sector Coordinator for the organization. She had earlier served as the World Bank’s Senior Economist in the Philippines.
Prior to joining the World Bank, Ms. Songwe was a Visiting Researcher at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minnesota and at the University of Southern California.
Ms. Songwe holds a PhD in Mathematical Economics from the Center for Operations Research and Econometrics and a Master of Arts in Law and Economics and a Diplôme d’études approfondies in Economic Science and Politics from the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Political Science from the University of Michigan and is a graduate of Our Lady of Lourdes College in Cameroon. Ms. Songwe has published widely on development and economic issues.
Elizabeth Stuart
Elizabeth Stuart is Executive Director of the Pathways for Prosperity Commission. She is a senior policy expert with 18 years’ experience in international development and with particular interest in the political economy of change. She has worked on a wide range of global policy processes such as the Sustainable Development Goals, the Doha Round negotiations of the WTO, and World Bank IDA replenishment.
Elizabeth joins the Commission from the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in London where she directed a research programme on growth, poverty and inequality, and was a senior research fellow. She is a former director of policy and research for Save the Children UK, and spent 7 years in Washington, running the Oxfam International office. She also led Oxfam’s international policy work on trade.
She regularly appears at events and panels at the UN, the IMF, the OECD, and ODI.
Elizabeth is also a former financial journalist for the Guardian newspaper and BBC. She has an undergraduate degree in modern languages, and masters degrees in literature and politics.
Toby Phillips
Toby is a manager in the secretariat for Pathways for Prosperity: Commission on Technology and Development. He leads the team responsible for content development, policy analysis, research, and outreach.
Prior to joining Oxford University, Toby worked as a civil servant in the Australian government, holding roles across several departments (Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Attorney-General’s Department, and Department of Human Services). His government experience was focussed on domestic policy: social security, aged care, disaster management, housing, higher education, and public finances.
Toby earned a Master of Public Policy (MPP) with distinction from the Blavatnik School of Government. His first degree was in science, a BSc(hons) with first-class honours from Flinders University, specialising in organic chemistry and molecular biology, which included a year of original research on drug synthesis.
Outside of Toby’s professional career, he has been active in Australian civil society before moving to the United Kingdom. He has worked extensively in youth development: as a volunteer with Scouts for many years and with youth mentoring schemes. Toby also has experience in senior NGO management, having held board director and international advisory roles.
Meena Bhandari
Meena Bhandari is the Head of Communications and Events for the Commission. She leads the team working on strategic external communications, engagement with voices from the developing world, and events.
Prior to joining the commission Meena was a senior consultant specialising in community engagement and accountability in humanitarian emergencies around the world. She has lived and worked across 5 continents, specialising in Africa and South Asia. She has a background in Communications, Monitoring and Evaluations and Program Quality and has worked with the Department for International Development (DFID), the International Organisation of Migration, UN agencies, the International Federation of the Red Cross, and NGOs including Oxfam GB. Meena recently designed an original suite of tools for the Shelter Cluster in South Sudan to help build Active Citizenship in aid delivery.
Meena previously worked with Internews in South Sudan as Humanitarian Director where she designed, led and scaled up an innovative accountability and engagement program using low technology to deliver accountability in the conflict. The audio Humanitarian Information Service, named Boda Boda Talk Talk, grew to a number of displacement sites across the country. Meena erected a full radio station in a frontline zone in the north of the country that reached approximately 100,000 people.
As a freelance journalist Meena has investigated and reported from Sierra Leone and the Philippines. Her work has been published by The Guardian, The BBC World Service, and Al Jazeera. She also teaches a short course at the University of East Anglia for young humanitarians, and set up her own food marketing company with her sister.
Meena holds a Masters in International Political Economy (Warwick University, UK), and an undergraduate degree in Economics and Politics from Oxford Brookes University.
Beatriz Kira
Beatriz is a Senior Research and Policy Officer at the Pathways for Prosperity Commission, working with the team responsible for content development, policy analysis, research, and outreach.
Prior to joining the University of Oxford, Beatriz worked as a researcher in Brazil, conducting research on a wide variety of topics at the intersection of law and technology, such as privacy and data protection, freedom of expression, regulation of sharing economy platforms, and copyright. She has also acted as a consultant for the Brazilian Competition Authority (CADE), providing advice on competition policy and the digital economy.
Beatriz earned a Master in Social Science of the Internet from the Oxford Internet Institute and is currently pursuing her PhD in Economic Law at the University of São Paulo, writing her dissertation about the challenges of traditional competition law when it comes to multi-sided internet platforms from the perspective of developing countries. Beatriz earned a Bachelor of Law degree in Brazil, where she is a qualified lawyer.
Andrea Tartakowsky Pezoa
Andrea is a Senior Research and Policy Officer for the Pathways for Prosperity Commission. She works with the team responsible for content development, policy analysis, research, and outreach, with a focus on the role of technologies in improving the delivery of health and education services in developing countries.
Andrea holds a BSc and an MSc in Economics from the University of Chile and an MSc in Comparative Social Policy from the University of Oxford. She is also a final-stage doctoral candidate in Social Policy at Nuffield College, University of Oxford. In her doctoral thesis, Andrea explores the long-terms effects of market-oriented reforms in the Chilean school system. As part as her doctoral training, Andrea spent one term as a Visiting Research Student at the Center for Education Policy Analysis (CEPA) at the University of Stanford.
Prior to coming to Oxford, Andrea worked as a public-policy consultant for the University of Chile and as a civil servant for the Chilean Ministries of Planning and Social Development. In both roles she contributed to the design, targeting and evaluation of large-scale social policies and programmes in the areas of health, education and poverty alleviation.
Apart from her interest in public policy analysis and academic research, Andrea enjoys teaching and training. She has been a Seminar Leader in ‘Economics for Public Policy’ and ‘Evidence and Public Policy’ for the Master of Public Policy (MPP) programme at the Blavatnik School of Government, and has tutored undergraduate and masters students in Social Policy, Education Policy and Quantitative Research Methods at many departments and colleges in Oxford.
Tebello Qhotsokoane
Tebello Qhotsokoane is a Research and Policy Officer at the commission. He works directly with Professor Dercon on research that looks at the impact that technology will have on governance and inclusive economic growth for low and middle income countries in the Global South.
Tebello has had several work experiences in the public and private sector, all aimed at understanding the ways that human capital can be leveraged as a tool for development. His previous work experience has focused primarily on the integration of technology in the delivery of education and healthcare.
As a research assistant at the Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis, he led a research project assessing labour market outcomes for people who took Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs). His interest in education led him to work for Global Teachers Institute (GTI), an EdTech startup in Cape Town. In his role as the Business Development Associate, he worked on creating the franchise documents for the organisation and produced a report on ICT policy in rural South Africa. He has undertaken work with Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and Discovery Health, where he has worked on innovation in diagnostics and medical insurance.
Most recently, Tebello worked in the Office of the Prime Minister of Lesotho where he aided in the negotiation and closing of a compact agreement between the Government of Lesotho and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). He holds a degree in Public Policy from Stanford University with interdisciplinary honours in Development, Democracy and the Rule of Law, which he completed under the supervision of Francis Fukuyama and Marcel Fafchamps. He completed a Master of Public Policy from the University of Oxford, where he was a Poler Scholar.
Francesca Walker
Francesca is a Research and Policy Officer at the Pathways for Prosperity Commission for Technology and Inclusive Development. She works with the team responsible for content development, policy analysis, research, and outreach.
Prior to joining the Commission, Francesca was Senior Publishing Editor for Politics and International Relations at Oxford University Press, where she edited and project managed a wide range of market-leading texts on these subjects. In addition to her publishing career, she has directed a panel on global inequalities at the University of Oxford’s 21CC Conference, and conducted a research internship in partnership with McGill University and South African History Online. She holds an MA degree from the University of Edinburgh, where she specialised in postcolonial history and had her work published on the sex trafficking industry in Thailand and Cambodia.
Marina Barker
Marina is the Commission’s Project Officer and works with the team to ensure all project plans are delivered to a high standard. She oversees project management and manages the commission’s administrative and financial activities, as well as planning, delivery and reporting.
Marina previously worked as a Programme Coordinator at the commercial arm of the London School of Economics and Political Science, and as a Client Liaison and Business Administration Executive at a New York City law firm. She holds a First-Class Honours degree with distinction.