Press Release: IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde Appoints Maurice Obstfeld as Economic Counsellor and Director of the IMF’s Research Department

IMF News, July 20, 2015

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Canonical URL: Press Release: IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde Appoints Maurice Obstfeld as Economic Counsellor and Director of the IMF’s Research Department

Press Release No.15/343
Date: July 20, 2015
Announcing official intention to appoint Professor Maurice Obstfeld as Economic Counsellor and Director of the IMF’s Research Department.
Mr. Obstfeld succeeds Olivier Blanchard (whose retirement was announced previously).
He is expected to begin his work at the Fund on September 8, 2015.

“I am thrilled to have Maurice join us at the Fund. His outstanding academic credentials and extensive international experience make him exceptionally well placed to provide intellectual leadership to the IMF at this important juncture. He is known around the globe for his work on international economics and is considered one of the most influential macroeconomists in the world,” Ms. Lagarde said.
“The position of Economic Counsellor is of fundamental importance to the IMF’s ability to provide its global membership with the best possible independent analysis and policy advice. I am confident that we have found an exceptional candidate in Maurice to take this work forward,” Ms Lagarde said.

Current role at time of announcement: Member of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, on leave from the University of California, Berkeley.
Academic position: Professor of Economics and former Chair of the Department of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley.
Education:
- Ph.D. in economics from MIT in 1979.
- M.A. from Cambridge University.
- B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Co-author of two textbooks:
- Foundations of International Macroeconomics (with Kenneth Rogoff).
- International Economics (with Paul Krugman and Marc Melitz).
Authored more than 100 research articles on:
- Exchange rates
- International financial crises
- Global capital markets
- Monetary policy
Honors include:
- John von Neumann Award
- Bernhard Harms Prize
- Tjalling C. Koopmans Asset Award of Tilburg University

Academic appointments:
- Columbia University: 1979–1986
- University of Pennsylvania: 1986–1989
- Joined Berkeley as professor in 1989
- Visiting professor at Harvard: 1989 to 1991
Advisory and research affiliations:
- Served from 2002 to 2014 as an honorary advisor to the Bank of Japan's Institute of Monetary and Economic Studies.
- Fellow of the Econometric Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
- Served on the Executive Committee and as Vice President of the American Economic Association.
- Research Fellow at the IMF on four separate occasions, most recently in 2012.

Source: Press Release No.15/343, July 20, 2015 — IMF Communications Department.