Press Release No. 22107

IMF Managing Director names Bert Kroese as Chief Statistician and Data Officer and, Director of the Statistics Department

April 7, 2022

Washington, DC: Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), announced today her intention to appoint Bert Kroese as the Fund’s Chief Statistician and Data Officer, and Director of the Statistics Department. He will succeed Louis-Marc Ducharme, who as previously announced , will retire from the Fund on May 31, 2022.

“I am very pleased to announce that Bert will join us as the Fund’s next Chief Statistician and Data Officer. He comes to us with a stellar track record as a strategic leader, people manager, and dedicated public servant after more than 25 years at Statistics Netherlands, where he currently holds the dual positions of Deputy Director-General and Chief Information Officer,” Ms. Georgieva stated.

She described him as a proven innovator that “will bring to the Fund a passion for harnessing the power of data and statistics to drive policymaking and improve lives.” “Bert’s forward-looking vision is well suited for the challenges we face, and I look forward to working with him to build on the Fund’s exceptional data and statistics work and to press into new areas such as big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence,” Ms. Georgieva added.

At Statistics Netherlands, Mr. Kroese was responsible for the production of all economic statistics—prices, national accounts, and government finance statistics—and for strengthening strategic relations with partners, including the Dutch Central Bank and many international organizations.

“Some of us know Bert already through his work at Statistics Netherlands—one of the world’s leading statistical agencies. He is also well known for his bridge-building acumen in international fora. To give just one example, for the last seven years, Bert has chaired the UN Committee of Experts on Environmental-Economic Accounting of which the Fund is a member, and which connects well with our own efforts to enhance climate data. Under his leadership, the committee achieved a major breakthrough with the adoption of the new Ecosystem Accounting framework in 2021 that was recognized as an international statistical standard by the UN Statistical Commission,” Ms. Georgieva stated.

“Throughout his remarkable career, he has followed his passion for innovation,” she added. Mr Kroese was responsible for the large-scale transformation of Statistics Netherland’s economic statistics which improved processes and generated better quality data, including a better statistical grip on globalization. He also developed a new data strategy for Statistics Netherlands and was at the forefront of the Dutch national data strategy.

In addition to his current roles at Statistics Netherlands, Mr Kroese also served in various other managerial positions at the agency, including a half-year stint in 2020 as acting Director-General where his inclusive leadership style was crucial to help staff adapt to the change to working from home as the COVID-19 pandemic erupted. He led the institution and its staff to ensure the continuity of statistics production, while creating new statistics and information in support of health, social, and economic policies relevant to pandemic containment.

Mr. Kroese holds a PhD (Honors) in mathematical statistics from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. He has held membership on many national and international high-level bodies—including the European Union and United Nations—on data strategy, innovation, statistics, and public governance.

Mr. Kroese will assume his role as the IMF’s Chief Statistician and Data Officer on August 15, 2022.