Aart Kraay is the Chief Economist of the Prosperity Vertical at the World Bank, which covers the Bank's analytical and policy work on macroeconomics and growth, poverty and inequality, trade and private sector development, governance and institutions, and the financial sector.

He joined the World Bank in 1995 after earning a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University (1995), and a B.Sc. in economics from the University of Toronto (1990). His research interests include macroeconomics in developing countries, international capital movements, the links between growth, poverty and inequality, and governance and institutions.

His research on these topics has been published in scholarly journals such as the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Review of Economics and Statistics, the Economic Journal, the Journal of Monetary Economics, the Journal of International Economics, and the Journal of the European Economic Association.

He is a member of the editorial board of the World Bank Research Observer and has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Development Economics and the World Bank Economic Review. He has also held visiting positions at the International Monetary Fund and the Sloan School of Management at MIT and has taught at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.

Maitreyi Bordia Das is the Director for Trust Funds and Partner Relations in the Development Finance Vice Presidency of the World Bank. Based in Washington DC, she leads the furtherance of the World Bank’s trust fund reform, implementation of the Bank’s policy framework for financial intermediary funds (FIFs) and supports the ongoing World Bank Group Evolution process.

Maitreyi is a leading voice to sustainable development, equity and inclusion, with a career that spans government, academia, the UN system and the World Bank. At the Bank, Maitreyi has held several advisory and managerial positions and led numerous research, policy and programmatic initiatives across urban development, resilience, water security, health, social protection and social development. She was the World Bank’s first Global Lead for Social Inclusion, is a speaker at various public forums and has an extensive publications record. In her last position as Manager in the Global Practice on Urban, Resilience and Land, she oversaw and expanded a wide range of trust funded global programs and partnerships.

Having started her career as a lecturer in St Stephen's College, University of Delhi, Maitreyi has also been a MacArthur Fellow at the Harvard Center of Population and Development Studies and an advisor to the United Nations Development Program in Guyana. She has a PhD in Sociology (Demography) from the University of Maryland. Before joining the World Bank, Maitreyi was in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).

Leslie Tsai is Director of Integrity Programs and General Counsel of the Chandler Foundation. Prior to joining the Chandler Foundation, Leslie was on the executive team of Microclinic International, a global health nonprofit working on chronic disease prevention in the U.S. and abroad.

Leslie started her legal career at the law firm of Sullivan and Cromwell before moving into the non-profit and philanthropic sector. Prior to law school, Leslie spent a year at the World Bank working on financial sector development in Africa. She has been honored as a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a World Economic Forum Global Shaper, a John Gardner Public Service Fellow, a Shafik Gabr U.S.-Egypt Exchange Fellow, and a TEDx speaker. Leslie received her law degree from Harvard and her bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

Doerte Doemeland is the Director for Strategy and Operations in the Prosperity Vice Presidency, a role she took on in July 2024. Before this assignment, she was the Practice Manager for Economic Policy for Latin America and the Caribbean and for the Global Macro and Debt Unit. Doerte has extensive management and operational experience, engaging with senior government officials on a wide range of policy reforms in Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean through advisory services and lending operations. She delivered influential knowledge products on fiscal policy, debt and growth, including while working with the Senior Vice President and Chief Economist in the World Bank’s Research Department. Doerte has represented the World Bank in international fora, such as the International Financial Architecture Working Group (IFAWG) of the G20 and the Paris Club. She holds a PhD in economics from University Pompeu Fabra (Spain).

Paul Smoke, Professor of Public Finance and Planning and Director of the PNP MPA, teaches courses on public finance, development planning, governance and development assistance in developing countries. His research and policy interests include urban and regional development and the political economy of fiscal reform and public sector decentralization. He previously taught in the International Development Program and directed the Master in City Planning Program at MIT, and he worked as a resident policy advisor with the Harvard Institute for International Development in Kenya and Indonesia. Smoke serves on the Economic Advisory Council of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, is on the Board of Directors of the Local Public Sector Alliance, is a Senior Research Associate at the Overseas Development Institute (London), is a commissioner and task force chair on the Sustainable Development Solutions Network Global Commission for Urban Finance. is member of the scientific committee of the OECD-UCLG World Observatory on Subnational Government Finance and Investment  is a Penn Institute for Urban Research Scholar, and is serving a term on the UN Committee of Experts on Public Administration until August 2029.  In 2022 he was named to Apolitical's 100 Most Influential Academics in Government. He is currently serving as Acting Director of the NYU Center on International Cooperation.

His research and policy work has covered multiple countries, including Indonesia, Kenya, Cambodia, Uganda, South Africa, Vietnam, India, Ethiopia, Palestine, Yemen, Brazil, Tanzania, Nepal, Egypt, and the USA. He has worked with various international organizations, including the World Bank, UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), UN Development Program (UNDP), UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), UN Center for Human Settlements (UNCHS), US Agency for International Development (USAID), UN Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the former British Department for International Development (DFID), the European Commission (EC), the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and GIZ (German Aid Agency).

Andrew Lawson is the co-founder and Technical Director of Fiscus Limited and was until July 2007, the Director of the Centre for Aid and Public Expenditure (CAPE) at the Overseas Development Institute, London.  He is a qualified economist, with an extensive experience of the design and implementation of PFM reforms, of PFM diagnostics and of complex evaluation work, including the management of multi-disciplinary teams and multi-country studies. He has led a number of major evaluations, and has established a reputation for a rigorous and insightful evaluation approach, with a strong emphasis on follow-up actions, through honest and open communication with stakeholders, careful development of recommendations, and clear presentation of final results and proposed solutions. He has also led several PEFA assessments as well as analyses of public expenditure in education, health, agriculture, and the environment.

Andrew has specialized in the design and evaluation of budget support and financial aid instruments. He was co-author (with David Booth) of the OECD-DAC framework for the evaluation of General Budget Support (2004) and subsequently applied it in evaluations in Tanzania and Ghana. With Enzo Caputo and Martin van der Linde, he updated the OECD-DAC framework in 2008 and has applied the new OECD-DAC framework as leader of multi-donor evaluations in Mali (2011), Tanzania (2012-13), Mozambique (2013-14), Sierra Leone (2015), Paraguay (2015), and Peru (2017-2018). He was also senior adviser on a meta-evaluation of EU macro-financial assistance to Eastern Europe and Central Asian countries.

Andrew is a strong communicator with a wide experience in training, capacity development, and senior level advice to strategic management. He is fluent in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Cathal co-leads the Digital Public Finance Hub at ODI. His other main area of interest is local government financing for service delivery. He also provides advice and technical assistance on public financial management reforms to governments and their development partners through ODI’s advisory services.

Prior to joining ODI, he was an ODI Fellow in the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development in Swaziland, and previously worked in public sector consultancy.

He holds a Master’s in Economics from University College Dublin and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).

Joseph Mubiru Kizito is the Practice Manager for Institutions-Financial Management in the Latin America and the Caribbean Region at the World Bank, overseeing activities across 30 countries. Mr. Kizito’s expertise centers around providing strategic guidance, driving business development, and enhancing development effectiveness through strengthening country Public Financial Management systems. With extensive experience in both technical and operational leadership of financial management teams, he has demonstrated a consistent ability to deliver high-quality financial management services, shape strategic directions, and cultivate collaborative relationships among team members and external stakeholders. Mr. Kizito possesses key skills including visionary leadership, problem-solving, client-oriented service, innovation, data analysis, strategic planning, active listening, and fostering collaboration.

Tracey Lane, a British national, joined the World Bank in 2001 as a Young Professional. She has held various positions in Washington DC and in Country Offices including as a Senior Economist in Eastern Europe, East Africa and South Asia regions and as Program Leader in Middle East and North Africa region and Lead Economist in Latin America. Her most recent assignment being Practice Manager in the Governance Global unit in the Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions (EFI) Vice Presidency before moving to the Africa West region. Tracey has extensive experience in government expenditure analysis, fiscal policy and managing public finances. In addition, she has worked on open government and fiscal transparency, tax and revenue policy and administration, and public service delivery. Prior to joining the World Bank Tracey worked in the U.K. Government and held economist positions in the Prime Minister’s Policy and Innovation Unit, the Department for International Development, and the Department for Transport.  In addition to Cairo, London and Washington DC; Tracey has lived and worked in Fiji, Kenya, and Bangladesh. Tracey has a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in Economics from the University of Essex, U.K.

Vishal Gujadhur oversees domestic public finance for the Development Policy and Finance team and is based in the foundation’s Washington, D.C., office. He leads a group that addresses how countries raise, spend, and allocate resources—and how they approach debt, planning and budgeting, and digital public finance.

Before joining the foundation, Vishal worked at Standard Chartered Bank. He helped establish the bank’s public sector group, which provides advisory services and financing solutions to entities such as developing country ministries of finance, central banks, and multilateral development banks.

Earlier, he worked in Liberia as an advisor to the finance minister, at the U.S. Treasury’s Office of International Affairs as an international economist, with the People’s Bank of China, and at the Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C. He has an MPA in international development from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a B.A. in economics from Wesleyan University.

Serdar Yilmaz is the Practice Manager for the Public Finance and Procurement Unit at the World Bank. He has broad experience in the related areas of fiscal decentralization, public expenditure management, subnational governance, and governmental accountability. Throughout his twenty-five year tenure at the World Bank, he has provided technical assistance and contributed to policy reforms in low and middle-income countries in Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the Middle East and East Asia regions. In addition to his task management responsibilities, Serdar makes original contributions to the literature. Serdar holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy from George Mason University. 

Richard is a Senior Governance Specialist in the Public Finance and Procurement Global Unit of the World Bank’s Governance Global Practice. He is also a member of the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Secretariat. Richard joined the World Bank in 2013.

In his current role, Richard oversees the Financial Management Umbrella Program, a pivotal global initiative utilized by the World Bank to facilitate trust-funded reforms aimed at optimizing public financial management (PFM) in client countries. Serving as the global lead for Climate Change Governance, he leads initiatives to enhance expertise and collaboration in technical areas such as Climate-Responsive Budgeting, Climate-Smart Public Investment Management, and Green Public Procurement. He is the technical chair for the Bank’s Climate Change Governance Community of Practice and is actively contributing to analytical work to reimagine the role and impact of PFM.

Before joining the Bank, Richard served as an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica. He has a master’s degree in economics and is finalizing a Ph.D. in Public Administration.

Sokbunthoeun So is a senior public sector specialist currently on a developmental assignment with the Public Finance and Procurement unit. In this role, he supports the implementation of the Financial Management Umbrella Program and analytical work on governance in sectors.  He joined the World Bank in 2013. He has extensive experience in leading the delivery of impactful advisory services and analytics related to governance and public sector reform (combining not only evidence-based analyses, but also proactive policy dialogue, multi-stakeholder coordination, and application of adaptive management in reform); management of the World Bank Trust Fund; and overseeing Investment Project Financing operations.  His main analytical work covers public finance management, political economy of reform, and change management. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Northern Illinois University, U.S.A. 

Anna Thompson Quaye is senior external affairs officer in the World Bank Group’s Engagement and Partnerships unit, and the lead for think tank partnerships.

Anna has extensive experience building private sector and foundation partnerships, mobilizing resources as well as developing partnerships with the business and philanthropic communities to leverage their comparative advantages to address development challenges in low-income countries.

Anna brings experience implementing programs in low-income countries with local stakeholders. She has worked within international organizations as well as with businesses, business coalitions, networks, and platforms. She worked with senior executives of mid-sized and Fortune 500 companies on workplace and social investment programs; facilitated the development of industry action on procurement with leading bed net manufacturers; orchestrated the effective engagement of the private sector on board policies of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria; and has organized and facilitated dialogues across multi-stakeholder groups.