Dr. Ishrat Husain

Ishrat Husain is currently the Dean and Director of the IBA Karachi.  Before that, he served as the Chairman, National Commission for Government Reforms, and as the Governor of Pakistan’s Central Bank. In recognition of his services in implementing a major program of restructuring of the Central Bank and steering the reforms of the banking sector, he was conferred the prestigious award of “Hilal-e-Imtiaz” by the President of Pakistan. The Banker magazine of London declared him as the Central Bank Governor of the Year for Asia in 2005. He received the Asian Banker Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006.

For two decades he served the World Bank as Resident Representative in Nigeria, Head of the Debt and International Finance Division, Chief Economist for Africa, Chief Economist for East Asia and Pacific Region, Country Director for Central Asian Republics. As a member of the elite Civil Service of Pakistan he served in the field and the Secretariat in the Planning and Development and Finance Departments of the Government of Sindh.

He was appointed by the Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a member of a panel to evaluate the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) and was also a member of the Mahathir Commission 2020 Vision for the Islamic Development Bank (IDB). He is currently a member of the IMF Advisory Group on the Middle East and UNDP Regional Advisory Group on Asia and Pacific.

Mr. Husain has authored 12 books and monographs, contributed more than two dozen articles in refereed journals and 15 chapters in books. He is regularly invited as a speaker to international conferences and seminars and has attended more than 100 such events all over the world so far. Ishrat Husain obtained Master’s degree in Development Economics from Williams College and a Doctorate in Economics from Boston University in 1978. He is a graduate of the Executive Development program jointly sponsored by Harvard, Stanford and INSEAD.