Contributor(s): Nemat Shafik | Nemat Shafik is the Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, a position she has held since April 2011. Prior to this Nemat was Permanent Secretary of the UK Department for International Development (DFID). She was chief executive of the department responsible for all UK development efforts including a bilateral aid programme in over 100 countries, multilateral policies and financing for the United Nations, European Union and international financial institutions, and overall development policy and research. Before her appointment as Permanent Secretary, she was Director General for Country Programmes where she was responsible for DFID's programmes across Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Nemat Shafik was the youngest ever Vice President at the World Bank where she was responsible for a private sector and infrastructure portfolio of investments worth about $50 billion. She led the Bank's work on energy, water, transport and urban sectors, private sector development as well as infrastructure economics and finance. Prior to this, she held a number of appointments at the World Bank working on macroeconomic and structural reform issues in the Middle East and North Africa, in Central Europe, on the environment, and on international economic issues including global economic modelling and forecasting. She has held a number of academic appointments at the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Economics Department at Georgetown University. Ms Shafik attained her BA in Economics and Politics from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and her MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She also holds a DPhil in Economics from St. Antony's College, Oxford University. She has authored, edited, and co-authored a number of books, including Prospects for the Middle East and North African Economies: from Boom to Bust and Back?, Challenges Facing Middle Eastern and North African Countries: Alternative Futures, and Reviving Private Investment in Developing Countries. She has also written articles for a number of publications, including Oxford Economic Papers, Colombia Journal of World Business, The Middle East Journal, Journal of African Finance and Economic Development, World Development, and the Journal of Development Economics. She was named "Woman of the Year" for Global Leadership and Global Diversity in 2009.