CGD Europe is a company limited by guarantee which is registered in England and Wales with company number 08871642 and a charity registered with the Charity Commission of England and Wales with number 1157318. CGD Europe is supervised by its board of Trustees who oversee and are responsible for CGD Europe’s activities.
Masood Ahmed (Board Chair)
President, Center for Global Development, president@cgdev.org
Masood Ahmed is president of the Center for Global Development. He joined the Center in January 2017, capping a 35-year career driving economic development policy initiatives relating to debt, aid effectiveness, trade, and global economic prospects at major international institutions including the IMF, World Bank, and DFID.
Ahmed joined CGD from the IMF, where he served for eight years as director, Middle East and Central Asia Department, earning praise from Managing Director Christine Lagarde as a "visionary leader." In that role, he oversaw the Fund's operations in 32 countries, and managed relationships with key national and regional policy makers and stakeholders. In previous years, he also served as the IMF's director of External Relations, and deputy director of the Policy Development and Review Department.
From 2003-2006, Ahmed served as director general, Policy and International at the UK government's Department for International Development (DFID). In that role, he was responsible for advising UK ministers on development issues and overseeing the UK's relationship with international development institutions such as the World Bank.
Ahmed also worked at the World Bank from 1979-2000 in various managerial and economist positions, rising to become Vice President, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management. In that role he led the HIPC (heavily indebted poor countries) debt relief initiative, which has to-date brought relief from debt burdens to 36 of the world's poorest nations.
Born and raised in Pakistan, Ahmed moved to London in 1971 to study at the LSE where he obtained a BSc Honors as well as an MSc Econ with distinction. He is a UK national.
Ahmed is a leading expert on Middle East economics, having served on the Advisory Board of the LSE Middle East Center, as well as on the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on the Middle East and North Africa. He has also participated in CGD's Advisory Board.
He took over as CGD president from Nancy Birdsall, who served as the Center's founding president for its first 15 years from 2001 and will stay at the Center as a senior fellow.
Tamsyn Barton
Tamsyn Barton has been since January 2019 the Chief Commissioner of the Independent Commission for Aid Impact, the aid watchdog, responsible for scrutiny of UK official development assistance, reporting to Parliament. Prior to this, she was CEO of Bond (International Development NGOs’ umbrella group). Previously she represented the European Investment Bank on the Board of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, following her role at EIB as Director-General, Lending Operations Outside the EU and Candidate Countries.
After a brief academic career which involved publication of two books and a number of articles in the field of ancient history, she moved into international development in 1993, and worked for NGOs and for the British Government in India and the UK in a range of policy and programme management roles before joining EIB in 2010. She is currently on the Board of the Institute for Development Studies, Sussex. She was from 2015 to 2019 a Trustee of the School of Oriental and African Studies and was also a member of the Oxford University Humanities Advisory Board.
Lindy Cameron
Lindy Cameron became CEO of the National Cyber Security Centre in October 2020 following more than two decades of national security policy and crisis management experience. She was previously a Director-General in the Northern Ireland Office and at the Department for International Development (DFID). After starting her career in the private sector, Lindy served across government both at home and abroad, including postings in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
Shaila Khan Leekha
Shaila Khan Leekha spent 17 years in the private and public sectors, including investment banking in NY and infrastructure investing at the IFC and GE Capital, followed by a senior role at DfID. There, she oversaw £2.5bn of the UK's aid budget, devising and achieving strategic outcomes in negotiations for the World Bank (WB) and CDC, DfIDs £5bn balance sheet PE fund. She led CDC’s Board, and managed 80+ staff with 7 direct reports including UK board members at the WB and EBRD. Together with HM Treasury, she also helped devise and negotiate returnable capital instruments for some of DfIDs private sector investments.
John Lipsky
Mr. Lipsky is a Senior Fellow of the Foreign Policy Institute of Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Previously, he was first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund, serving as acting managing director during May-July, 2011. Prior to returning to the IMF, he held positions of vice chairman of JPMorgan Investment Bank, chief economist at JPMorgan Chase, chief economist and director of research at Chase Manhattan Bank, and chief economist at Salomon Brothers. Early in his career, he spent 10 years at the International Monetary Fund.
Mr. Lipsky currently is the chair of the National Bureau of Economic Research, the co-chair of the Aspen Institute's Program on the World Economy and a vice-chair of the Bretton Woods Committee. He also serves on the advisory board of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR); is a director of the American Council on Germany, is a member of the Advisory Board of the Rock Creek Group, and is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He holds a PhD. in economics from Stanford University.
Ellen Mackenzie
Chief Financial Officer, Center for Global Development, emackenzie@cgdev.org
Ellen Mackenzie is chief financial officer and director for operations at the Center for global Development. Mackenzie directs all of the organization’s administrative, accounting, budgeting, human resource, and information technology efforts. Before joining CGD in 2007, Mackenzie was the director of finance and operations at the Global Fund for Children. She has more than 15 years of experience working with nonprofit organizations.