Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Former Nigerian finance minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala  will be the guest speaker on 2 June at MIT’s 2016 Investiture of Doctoral Hoods,  Cynthia Barnhart, chancellor   of the school based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States has announced.

“Dr. Okonjo-Iweala’s leadership on the complex global stage of economics and politics demonstrates the real-world impact of an informed and compassionate scholar. We are honoured that she will return to MIT to share that vision of service with our doctoral candidates,” says Barnhart in a statement released today.

The Investiture of Doctoral Hoods ceremony featured a guest speaker for the first time last year.

This new tradition solicits input from MIT faculty and doctoral students, with the aim to invite as guest speaker an MIT alum who can encourage and inspire students as they begin their new careers.

Okonjo-Iweala after an  undergraduate degree at Harvard University  did her graduate work at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT, receiving an MCP in 1978 and a PhD in regional economics and development in 1981.

After serving 21 years at the World Bank, first as a development economist and later as vice president and corporate secretary, Okonjo-Iweala became Nigeria’s minister of finance in 2003. During her three-year tenure, her influence was key to repositioning Nigeria as a nation in recovery, including initiating negotiations that ended in Western creditor nations acquiescing to cancel $30 billion of Nigerian debt.

In December 2007, Okonjo-Iweala returned to the World Bank as managing director, the second-highest position in the organization. In that time, she oversaw the World Bank’s $81 billion operational portfolio in Africa, South Asia, Europe, and Central Asia, and led several World Bank initiatives to assist low-income countries during the 2008-2009 food crisis.

In 2010 she successfully chaired the World Bank’s drive to raise $49.3 billion in grants and low-interest credit for the world’s poorest countries. In 2011, she returned to Nigeria to serve as minister of finance and coordinating minister for the economy.

She is at present a senior advisor at Lazard, a global financial advisory and asset management firm. She is also the chair of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization.