Handle with Care: Fragility-proofing in an Age of Instability
Description
2017 Robert S. McNamara Lecture on War and Peace
Kristalina Georgieva
Chief Executive Officer for the World Bank
Doug Elmendorf (Moderator)
Dean, Harvard Kennedy School
Don K. Price Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
Kristalina Georgieva, CEO of the World Bank, addressed the forum on the current challenges and successes of the global economy, including topics such as gender equality, global warming, poverty, and collective action. Ms. Georgieva also took questions from the audience on topics like maintaining a diverse and adaptable economy, restructuring policies, and the climate of international finance. Douglas Elmendorf, Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School, moderated the discussion.
Kristalina Georgieva is the Chief Executive Officer for the World Bank (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association). Georgieva’s role is to build support across the international community to help mobilize resources for poor and middle-income countries and develop more effective solutions for the poor at the scale required.
Previously, Georgieva, a Bulgarian national, helped shape the agenda of the European Union, first as Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, managing one of the world's largest humanitarian aid budgets, and later as Vice President for Budget and Human Resources, in charge of the European Union's €161 billion (US $175bn) budget and 33,000 staff around the world.
Before joining the European Commission, Georgieva held multiple positions at the World Bank, including, most recently, Vice President and Corporate Secretary (2008-2010), and from 2007 to 2008, Director for Sustainable Development in charge of 60 percent of the World Bank’s policy and lending operations.
Douglas W. Elmendorf is Dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he also serves as the Don K. Price Professor of Public Policy.
Doug Elmendorf served as the director of the Congressional Budget Office from January 2009 through March 2015. Prior to joining CBO, he was at Brookings, where he was a senior fellow, the Edward M. Bernstein Scholar, and the director of The Hamilton Project. He was previously an assistant professor at Harvard University, a principal analyst at CBO, a senior economist at the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, a deputy assistant secretary for economic policy at the Treasury Department, and an assistant director of the Division of Research and Statistics at the Federal Reserve Board. In those positions, he worked on budget policy, health care issues, the macroeconomic effects of fiscal policy, Social Security, income security programs, financial markets, macroeconomic analysis and forecasting, and other topics.
Doug Elmendorf earned his Ph.D. and A.M. in economics from Harvard University, where he was a National Science Foundation graduate fellow, and his A.B. summa cum laude from Princeton University.