Spring Meetings

Gita Gopinath
First Deputy Managing Director
IMF

Gita Gopinath is the First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as of January 21, 2022. In that role she oversees the work of staff, represents the Fund at multilateral forums, maintains high-level contacts with member governments and Board members, the media, and other institutions, leads the Fund’s work on surveillance and related policies, and oversees research and flagship publications.  

Chrystia Freeland
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Canada
IMF

Chrystia Freeland is Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance. She was first elected as a Member of Parliament in November 2013, and was re-elected in 2015, 2019, and 2021.

She served as Minister of International Trade from 2015 until January 2017, when she became Minister of Foreign Affairs. In November 2019, she was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, until August 2020, when she became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.

An esteemed journalist and author, the Deputy Prime Minister was born in Peace River, Alberta. She was educated at Harvard University before continuing her studies on a Rhodes Scholarship at the University of Oxford.

Jason Furman
Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy
Harvard Kennedy School(HKS)

Jason Furman is Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). He is also nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. This followed eight years as a top economic adviser to President Obama, including serving as the 28th Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers from August 2013 to January 2017. Furman was the chair of the UK government's Digital Competition Expert Panel.

Christian Lindner
Minister of Finance, Germany

Christian Lindner, born on the 7th of January 1979, is Germany’s Federal Minister of Finance and a member of the German parliament (Bundestag). Lindner was elected party leader of the Free Democrats in December 2013. As chairman of the Free Democrats Parliamentary Group (2017-2021) Christian Lindner established a constructive and successful parliamentary group in the German Bundestag. After successful coalition negotiations Christian Lindner became Germany’s Federal Minister of Finance in the first ever three-party coalition on December, 8th 2021.

Lindner joined the FDP in 1995. He was elected as a member of the federal state parliament in North Rhine-Westphalia for the first time in 2000. Between 2012 and 2017 Lindner served as parliamentary leader of the FDP group in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Lindner grew up in Wermelskirchen near Cologne. He studied political science, philosophy and public law at the Rheinische Friedrich-WilhelmsUniversity in Bonn.

Mohamed Maait
Minister of Finance, Egypt

Mohamed Maait is currently serving as the Minister of Finance. Prior to his appointment as a Minister, he held the position of Vice Minister of Finance for Public Treasury Affairs & Head of the Economic Justice Unit. In addition, he served as the First Assistant Minister of Finance for Treasury Affairs in 2015 and as the Assistant Minister of Finance for Pensions and Social Insurance during the period (2009 – 2013). He also held the position of the Assistant Minister of Finance for Actuarial Administration Affairs in (2013) and the position of the First Assistant Minister of Health & Population during the period (2014–2015). Over his career of 33 years, he occupied many positions such as acting Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (2013-2015), Chairman of the Egyptian Governmental Actuarial Department (EGAD) at the Ministry of Finance (2010-2013), Vice Chairman of the National Organization for Social Insurance (2011-2012), and Senior Advisor to the Minister of Finance (2007- 2009). He was also appointed as the Executive Director of the Egyptian Insurance Institute (2007). Regarding his presence in boards of directors, he is currently the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Africa Reinsurance Corporation since 2021, and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Egyptian General Authority for Universal Health Insurance since 2018. Moreover, he was appointed as a member of the board of directors in many institutions.

Academically, he holds the title of the Assistant Professor in the Department of Actuarial Science and Insurance in the Faculty of Commerce - Cairo University.He also worked as a senior lecturer and has more than 30 years of teaching and researching experience at many universities in Egypt, Sudan, England and Scotland. Dr. Maait holds a BSc degree in Insurance and Mathematics from Cairo University, Egypt (1984), an MPhil in Insurance from Cairo University, Egypt (1992). He also obtained a Diploma in Actuarial Science in 1996, an MSc in Actuarial Science in 1997, and a PhD degree in Actuarial Science from City University, London, UK (2003). His academic and professional activities were shown in several research papers and publications.

Martin Wolf
Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times

Martin Wolf is chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, London. He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 2000 “for services to financial journalism”. Mr Wolf is an honorary fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford, honorary fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford University, an honorary fellow of the Oxford Institute for Economic Policy (Oxonia) and an honorary professor at the University of Nottingham. He has been a forum fellow at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos since 1999. He was made a Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, by Nottingham University in July 2006. He was made a Doctor of Science (Economics) of London University, honoris causa, by the London School of Economics in December 2006. His most recent publications are Why Globalization Works and Fixing Global Finance.