Shamshad Akhtar

Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

Dr.Shamshad Akhtar (Pakistan) is an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nationsand the tenth Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission forAsia and the Pacific.

 

Formerly,Dr. Akhtar was the UN Secretary-General's Special Senior Advisor on Economicsand Finance, and Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development at theDepartment of Economic and Social Affairs. She led the UN-wide coordination ofthe work on the post-2015 development agenda, and was also the United NationsSherpa for the G20, supporting the Finance Ministers and Central Bankers track.

 

Dr.Akhtar has previously served as Governor of the Central Bank of Pakistan. Inher capacity as Governor, Dr. Akhtar was also the Chairperson of the CentralBank Board and its affiliates, as well as a Governor of the IMF. She won twoconsecutive awards as Asia's Best Central Bank Governor from Emerging Marketsand from the Banker’s Trust. In 2008, The WALL STREET JOURNAL ASIA alsorecognized her as one of Asia’s top ten professional women.

 

Dr.Akhtar served as Vice President of the Middle East and North Africa Region ofthe World Bank. In this role, Dr. Akhtar spearheaded the Bank’s response to theArab Spring as well as the Arab regional integration strategy and itsimplementation. She served in the Asian Development Bank for almost 15 years,rising through the ranks from Senior Economist, to the highest professionalpositions, including Special Senior Advisor to the President of ADB, andDirector-General of the South-East Asia region.

 

Dr.Akhtar was a post-doctoral US Fulbright Fellow at Harvard University, she holdsa PhD in Economics and a Masters in Development Economics from the UK, and anMSc in Economics from Quaid-e-Azam University, in Islamabad.