Ngaire Woods

Ngaire Woods’ background

Professor Ngaire Woods is the founding Dean of the Blavatnik School of Government and Professor of Global Economic Governance at Oxford University. Her research focuses on how to enhance the governance of organisations, the challenges of globalisation, global development, and the role of international institutions and global economic governance.

She founded the Global Economic Governance Programme at Oxford University, and co-founded (with Robert O. Keohane) the Oxford-Princeton Global Leaders Fellowship programme. She led the creation of the Blavatnik School of Government.

Ngaire Woods serves as a member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank’s International Advisory Panel and as a Non-Executive Director at Rio Tinto. She is a trustee of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, the Stephen A. Schwarzman Education Foundation, and the Van Leer Foundation. She is a member of the Conseil d’administration of the Institut National Du Service Public. She sits on the advisory boards of the Centre for Global Development, the Hoffmann Global Institute for Business & Society, the African Leadership Institute, the School of Management and Public Policy at Tsinghua University, the Nelson Mandela School of Public Policy at Cape Town University, and the International Business and Diplomatic Exchange (IBDE). She is Vice-Chair of the Alfred Landecker Foundation’s Governing Council and a member of the UK Department for International Trade’s Trade and Economy Panel. She is also an honorary governor of the Ditchley Foundation and is co-Chair of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Frontier Risks.

Previously, she served as a Non-Executive Director on the Arup Global Group Board and on the Board of the Center for International Governance Innovation. From 2016-2018, she was Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Values, Technology and Governance. She has also served as a member of the IMF European Regional Advisory Group, and as an Advisor to the IMF Board, to the Government of Oman’s Vision 2040, to the African Development Bank, to the UNDP’s Human Development Report, and to the Commonwealth Heads of Government. She was a member of the G20 High Level Independent Panel on Financing the Global Commons for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, and of the Lancet Commission on COVID-19.

Ngaire Woods has published extensively on international institutions, the global economy, globalization, and governance, including the following books: The Politics of Global Regulation (with Walter Mattli, Oxford University Press, 2009), Networks of Influence? Developing Countries in a Networked Global Order (with Leonardo Martinez-Diaz, Oxford University Press, 2009), The Globalizers: the IMF, the World Bank and their Borrowers (Cornell University Press, 2006), Exporting Good Governance: Temptations and Challenges in Canada’s Aid Program (with Jennifer Welsh, Laurier University Press, 2007), and Making Self-Regulation Effective in Developing Countries (with Dana Brown, Oxford University Press, 2007). She has previously published The Political Economy of Globalization (Macmillan, 2000), Inequality, Globalization and World Politics (with Andrew Hurrell: Oxford University Press, 1999) and Explaining International Relations since 1945 (Oxford University Press, 1996). She has published numerous articles on international institutions, globalisation, and governance. She has also presented numerous documentaries for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Two.

She was educated at Auckland University (BA in economics, LLB Hons in law). She studied at Balliol College, Oxford as a New Zealand Rhodes Scholar, completing an MPhil (with Distinction) and then DPhil (in 1992) in International Relations. She won a Junior Research Fellowship at New College, Oxford (1990-1992) and subsequently taught at Harvard University (Government Department) before taking up her Fellowship at University College, Oxford and academic roles at Oxford University.

Ngaire Woods was appointed Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2018 New Year’s Honours for services to Higher Education and Public Policy. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.