Masood Ahmed (economist)

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Sir Masood Ahmed KCMG is a Pakistan-born British economist who led the Center for Global Development from 2017 to 2024. He has worked at the IMF, the World Bank, and the UK Department for International Development, focusing on debt, aid effectiveness, trade, and global economic prospects. He writes on economics and the Middle East, including for the Huffington Post.

Born in Pakistan, he attended Karachi Grammar School and studied economics at the London School of Economics, where he later taught. At the World Bank (1979–2000) he worked on country programs and policy, helped develop the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and the HIPC Initiative, and served as Acting Vice President for Private Sector Development and Infrastructure. He joined the IMF in 2000 as deputy director in the Policy Development and Review Department. From 2003 to 2006 he led Policy and International Development at DFID, and in 2006 returned to the IMF as Director of External Relations, later (2008) becoming Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department. In 2017 he became president of the CGD until 2024. In 2021 the G20 appointed him project director for the High Level Independent Panel on financing the global commons for pandemic preparedness and response, and he joined the World Bank–IMF High-Level Advisory Group on Sustainable and Inclusive Recovery and Growth. He was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in 2023 for services to international development.