IMF’s First Deputy Managing Director Returns to Harvard

Nume Ekeghe

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced that Gita Gopinath, its First Deputy Managing Director (FDMD), will step down from her position at the end of August to return to Harvard University. Gopinath, who joined the Fund in 2019 as Chief Economist and became the IMF’s number two official in January 2022, is set to assume a new role as the inaugural Gregory and Ania Coffey Professor of Economics at Harvard’s Department of Economics.

Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva announced recently that Gita Gopinath, First Deputy Managing Director (FDMD), will be leaving the Fund at the end of August to return to Harvard University, where she will be the inaugural Gregory and Ania Coffey Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics. Ms. Gopinath joined the Fund in January 2019 as Chief Economist and was promoted to First Deputy Managing Director in January 2022.

In making the announcement Georgieva said: “Gita has been an outstanding colleague an exceptional intellectual leader, dedicated to the mission and members of the Fund, and a fabulous manager, always showing genuine care for the professional standing and wellbeing of our staff. She came to the Fund as a highly respected academic in macroeconomics and international finance. Admiration for Gita only grew through her time at the Fund, where her analytical rigor was paired with practical policy advice to the membership during an especially challenging period, which included the pandemic, wars, the cost-of-living crisis, and major shifts in the global trading system.”

On her departure, Gopinath said: “I am truly grateful for my time at the IMF, first as Chief Economist and then as First Deputy Managing Director. I have had the privilege of working closely with the IMF’s brilliant and committed staff, colleagues in management, the Executive Board, and country authorities.”