Biography
Professor Ian Goldin was the founding Director of the Oxford Martin School from September 2006 to September 2016. He is currently Oxford University Professor of Globalisation and Development and the Director of the Oxford Martin Programme on Technological and Economic Change. He is a Senior Fellow at the Oxford Martin School and a Professorial Fellow at the University’s Balliol College.
During his decade as Director the School established 45 programmes of research, bringing together more than 500 academics from across Oxford, from over 100 disciplines, and becoming the world’s leading centre for interdisciplinary research into critical global challenges.
Professor Goldin initiated and was Vice-Chair of the Oxford Martin Commission for Future Generations, which brought together 19 international leaders from government, business, academia, media and civil society to address the growing short-term preoccupations of modern politics and business, and identify ways of overcoming today’s gridlock in key international negotiations. The Commission’s report, Now for the Long Term, was published in October 2013.
From 2003 to 2006 he was Vice President of the World Bank, and prior to that the Bank’s Director of Development Policy (2001-2003). He served on the Bank’s senior management team and led the Bank’s collaboration with the United Nations and other partners as well as with key countries. As Director of Development Policy, he played a pivotal role in the research and strategy agenda of the Bank.
From 1996 to 2001 he was Chief Executive and Managing Director of the Development Bank of Southern Africa and served as an advisor to President Nelson Mandela. He succeeded in transforming the Bank to become the leading agent of development in the 14 countries of Southern Africa. During this period, Goldin served on several Government committees and Boards, and was Finance Director for South Africa’s Olympic Bid.
Previously, Goldin was Principal Economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London, and Program Director at the OECD Development Centre in Paris, where he directed the Programs on Trade, Environment and Sustainable Development.
He has a BA (Hons) and a BSc from the University of Cape Town, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and an MA and Doctorate from the University of Oxford.
Ian has served as a non-executive director on the boards of a number of leading businesses, including Old Mutual, Implenia AG, Metropolitan Life, and CDC Plc. His board positions include being the lead independent director and chairing investment, credit, risk, audit, strategy, remuneration, social responsibility and ethics committees. Ian has advised over 50 governments and 100 leading global businesses. His non-profit activities include being the Chair of the CORE-econ.org initiative to reform global economics and serving as a trustee of Comic Relief and other charities.
Goldin has received wide recognition for his contributions to development and research, including having been knighted by the French Government, receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of Romania and nominated Global Leader of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum. He has extensive media experience, appearing on all the major broadcasters. His BBC series After the Crash was broadcast on the World Service and Radio 4 from September to November 2018. This was followed by Will AI kill Development? for the BBC World Service Documentary segment which aired in April 2019. He has published over 50 articles and 21 books, including Globalization for Development: Meeting New Challenges (Oxford University Press, 2012), Exceptional People: How Migration Shaped our World and Will Define our Future (Princeton University Press, 2011), Divided Nations: Why global governance is failing and what we can do about it, (Oxford University Press, 2013), The Butterfly Defect: How globalization creates systemic risks, and what to do about it (Princeton University Press, 2014) and an edited volume, Is the Planet Full? (Oxford University Press, 2014). His latest books are The Pursuit of Development: Economic Growth, Social Change and Ideas (Oxford University Press, 2016), Age of Discovery: Navigating the Storms of Our Second Renaissance (Bloomsbury, 2017), and Development: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2018) and is the lead author of Migration and the Economy: Economic Realities, Social Impacts and Political Choices published with Citi in September 2018.