Biography

Mohamed A. El-Erian is the President of Queens’ College, Cambridge, also serving as Chief Economic Advisor at Allianz, Chair of Gramercy Fund Management and Professor of Practice at The Wharton School. He formerly served as Chief Executive and Co-Chief Investment Officer of PIMCO (2007-14). A columnist for Bloomberg Opinion and a contributing editor at the Financial Times, he is a member of the boards of Barclays, UnderArmour and several non-profits. From December 2012 to January 2017, Dr. El-Erian chaired President Obama’s Global Development Council. Prior to PIMCO, he was an international civil servant at the IMF in Washington DC for 15 years and, for two years, president and CEO of Harvard Management Company, the entity that manages Harvard’s endowment.

He was named to Foreign Policy’s list of “Top 100 Global Thinkers” for four years in a row and has published widely on international economic and finance topics. His 2008 book, When Markets Collide, was a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, won the Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year and was named a book of the year by The Economist and one of the best business books of all time by the Independent (UK). His 2016 book, The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability and Avoiding the Next Collapse, was also a New York Times bestseller and was listed as one of the “25 of the Most Inspiring Books Everyone Should Read.”

He holds a master’s degree and doctorate in economics from Oxford University and received his undergraduate degree in Economics from Cambridge University.