Björn Gillsater is the Head of the Joint Data Center on Forced Displacement --based in Copenhagen--, a partnership between the World Bank and UNHCR. Prior to this appointment, Björn was the World Bank Special Representative to the United Nations between May 2016 and June 2019. His previous experience with the Bank dates back to 2001-2005 when he was a Senior Advisor to the Nordic-Baltic Executive Director - a member of the Bank’s Board of Directors.
Prior to the Bank, Gillsäter was the Head of Secretariat for the Multilateral Organization Performance Assessment Network (MOPAN), which is a function hosted by the OECD and based in Paris, France. Gillsäter brings over 20 years of experience working on multilateral affairs, both as a government official in the Ministry of Finance of Sweden and as a staff member of several international organizations including UNICEF, the African Development Bank, and the European Commission.
Gillsäter has an M.A. in International Affairs from Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, and Harvard Business School, an M.A. in Law and Economics from Hamburg, Gent, and Aix-en-Provence, and a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from the University of Lund, Sweden. He lives in Larchmont, N.Y., with his wife and three daughters.