Indian-born Gita Gopinath is the First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as of January 21, 2022—the first woman to hold the title. Gopinath has co-authored several books, including “What The Economy Needs Now” and “Handbook of International Economics,” and has also written research articles on emerging markets, trade and investment, the stock market, and international financial crises.
As managing director, she supervises the work of staff, represents the Fund at conferences, maintains high-level contacts with Board members, the media, and other institutions, leads the Fund’s work on surveillance and related policies, and oversees research publications.
Gopinath was born in 1971 in Kolkata, India. She received a bachelor’s degree in 1992 from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, a division of the University of Delhi, and a master’s in economics from Delhi School of Economics, also of the University of Delhi, in 1994. When in India, she also served as a member of the Eminent Persons Advisory Group on G-20 Matters for the Union Finance Ministry.
She then earned a master’s at the University of Washington in 1996 and a doctor of philosophy
in the field of international macroeconomics and trade from Princeton University in 2001.
In 2001, Gopinath joined the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business as an assistant professor. Nine years later, she moved to Harvard University's economics department, where she was the John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and Economics through 2022.
Gopinath made history as the first female appointed Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund in October 2018, where she was the economic counselor of the fund and director of its research department. She was co-author of the "Pandemic Paper” on ending the COVID-19 pandemic, a work that set globally endorsed targets for vaccinating the world. As a result, the Multilateral Task Force was created, consisting of the leadership of the IMF, World Bank, World Trade Organization, and World Health Organization.
Gopinath’s work has not gone unrecognized. She has been chosen as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (WEF), named one of the top 25 economists under 45 by the IMF, received the John Kenneth Galbraith Award, and was awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award by the President of India, among other distinguished acknowledgments.