PinkyGul Heroines
Dr. Shamshad Akhtar is an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and the tenth Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. Throughout her career, she has proved that no leadership role is too difficult for Pakistani women to not only take the reins of, but succeed in as well.
She started her career in 1980 with the Planning Commission in Islamabad but moved a few months later to work with the World Bank’s Resident Mission in Pakistan as a country economist. She left in 1986 for a year-long sabbatical to attend John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University as a postdoctoral researcher under the Fulbright Program.
Dr Akhtar served as Vice President of the Middle East and North Africa Region of the World Bank. In this role, Ms. Akhtar spearheaded the Bank’s response to the Arab Spring as well as the Arab regional integration strategy and its implementation. She continued to play a key role in global affairs by acting as a senior adviser to former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon.
Previously the Secretary-General’s Senior Advisor on Economics and Finance, as well as Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development, she led the UN-wide coordination of the post-2015 development agenda and related policy and normative work, including supporting work on the Sustainable Financing Strategy.
Dr Akhtar has also received international recognition for her formative work in the financial sector and monitoring of global affairs; she was named Best Central Bank Governor for Asia 2007 by the Euromoney Institutional Investor. What’s more, she was also recognized as one of the top ten women leaders in Asia by The Wall Street Journal in 2008.
PinkyGul Heroines
Dr. Shamshad Akhtar is an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and the tenth Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. Throughout her career, she has proved that no leadership role is too difficult for Pakistani women to not only take the reins of, but succeed in as well.
She started her career in 1980 with the Planning Commission in Islamabad but moved a few months later to work with the World Bank’s Resident Mission in Pakistan as a country economist. She left in 1986 for a year-long sabbatical to attend John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University as a postdoctoral researcher under the Fulbright Program.
Dr Akhtar served as Vice President of the Middle East and North Africa Region of the World Bank. In this role, Ms. Akhtar spearheaded the Bank’s response to the Arab Spring as well as the Arab regional integration strategy and its implementation. She continued to play a key role in global affairs by acting as a senior adviser to former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon.
Previously the Secretary-General’s Senior Advisor on Economics and Finance, as well as Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development, she led the UN-wide coordination of the post-2015 development agenda and related policy and normative work, including supporting work on the Sustainable Financing Strategy.
Dr Akhtar has also received international recognition for her formative work in the financial sector and monitoring of global affairs; she was named Best Central Bank Governor for Asia 2007 by the Euromoney Institutional Investor. What’s more, she was also recognized as one of the top ten women leaders in Asia by The Wall Street Journal in 2008.
