29/02/2024 – Alvaro Santos Pereira has been appointed as the next Chief Economist of the OECD, starting on 1 June 2024.
Alvaro is a leading economist who served as Portugal’s Minister for Economy and Employment from 2011-2013, with responsibility for the areas of Industry, Commerce and Services, Tourism, Energy and Public Works, Transportation, and Employment.
He was first appointed as the Director of Country Studies in the OECD Economics Department on 1 March 2014 overseeing the peer review process for the Organisation’s Economic Surveys, identifying challenges, and developing recommendations to help improve Member and Partner countries’ long-term economic performance.
Alvaro has acted as the OECD’s Chief Economist on two occasions, most recently in the period from July 2022 to May 2023. In October 2023, he was appointed Director of the Policy Studies branch of the Economics Department.
In his new role, he will lead economic analysis and policy advice to support Members to optimise the strength and the quality of economic development and growth in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and amid the social and economic impacts of Russia’s ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine, as well as in the context of the structural transformations required to secure the green and digital transitions.
Prior to his service in the Portuguese government, he was a professor of Economic Development and Economic Policy at Simon Fraser University and a lecturer at the University of British Columbia in Canada and a lecturer at the University of York in the United Kingdom.
A Portuguese and Canadian national, Alvaro holds a Doctorate degree in Economics from Simon Fraser University, Burnaby (Canada), a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Exeter (UK) and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Coimbra (Portugal).
Working with over 100 countries, the OECD is a global policy forum that promotes policies to preserve individual liberty and improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world.