Ngaire Woods

Professor Ngaire Woods is the inaugural Dean of the Blavatnik School of Government and Professor of Global Economic Governance. Her research focuses on global economic governance, the challenges of globalization, global development, and the role of international institutions. She founded the Global Economic Governance Programme (www.globaleconomicgovernance.org). She is co-founder (with Robert O. Keohane) of the Oxford-Princeton Global Leaders Fellowship programme. She led the creation of the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University and, before her appointment as Dean, served as the School’s Academic Director.

Ngaire Woods has served as an Advisor to the IMF Board, to the UNDP’s Human Development Report, and to the Commonwealth Heads of Government. She was a regular presenter of the Analysis Program for BBC Radio 4, and in 1998 presented her own BBC TV series on public policy. She has also served as a member of the IMF European Regional Advisory Group, and Chair of a World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council. She is currently a Rhodes Trustee, a Non-Executive Director of Arup, a member of the Advisory Group of the Center for Global Development (Washington DC), a member of the Board of the Center for International Governance Innovation (Waterloo), a member of the Academic and Policy Board of Oxonia, a member of the Board of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, and a Trustee of the Europeaum.

Her recent books include: 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), Explaining International Relations since 1945 (Oxford University Press, 1986), and numerous articles on international institutions, globalization, and governance.

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.