Kalpana Kochhar is Director, Development Policy and Finance at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Prior to taking this position, she spent 33 years at the International Monetary Fund, ending her career as the Director of the Human Resources Department of the IMF between 2016 and 2021. She has also held positions as Deputy Director in the Asia and Pacific Department, where she worked on India, China, Korea, Japan, and several other Asian countries, and in the Strategy, Policy and Review Department, where she launched the IMF’s work on the macroeconomic implications of gender inequality and women’s economic empowerment.
Between 2010 and 2012, she was seconded to the World Bank as the Chief Economist for the South Asia Region of the World Bank.
Ms. Kochhar’s research interests and publications have been on emerging markets including India and China, and jobs and inclusive growth, gender and inequality issues, structural reforms, and regional integration in South Asia.
She holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in Economics from Brown University and an M.A. in Economics from Delhi School of Economics in India. She has a B.A in Economics from Madras University in India.