December 2014
Rudy Purba (PP ’01), Director – Development Projects, ANUedge, The Australian National University, Canberra
Rudy Purba is Director of Development Projects at ANUedge, a consulting part of ANU Enterprise Pty Ltd, the commercial arm of the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, Australia. His role is to lead the activity of building development projects in Asia-Pacific countries through ANUedge’s clients and network of ANU academics and associates. Before residing in Australia, from late 2007, Rudy worked with the Indonesian government, an industrial technology think tank and later established businesses with partners in Jakarta in the area of international trade and telecommunications. Rudy obtained his engineer’s degree and conducted research in the Netherlands in 1996 and he received his Master of Policy Analysis from GSPS/GRIPS in in 2001.
Oleg Smokyakov was appointed Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Kazakhstan in September 2014. He started his career in the central bank in 1996 where he has held various positions including Director of the Financial Stability and Risk Management Department, Head of the Financial Stability Division as well as Principal Economist and Deputy Director of the Balance of Payments and Currency Regulation Department and Leading Economist in the Research and Statistics Department. Mr. Smolyakov majored in economics at the Kazakh State Academy for Management and completed the Transition Economy Program at GRIPS in 2001. In 2011, he graduated from Warwick Business School with an MSc in Finance and Economics.
Graduating with a BA from the University of the Philippines in 1982, Cesar Polvorosa, Jr. joined the Central Bank of the Philippines as an Economist. He received his Master of Policy Science in 1986 from GRIPS’ predecessor GSPS. Cesar moved to Canada in 2004 and did doctoral studies in geography at York University. After graduation, he shifted full time to the academe and consulting work in Toronto. He is a consultant on business plans, publications, immigration and strategic planning. Over the years, he published several business and economics articles including book chapters. He is an occasional columnist for Interaksyon, the popular news website of Philippine TV channel TV5 writing on economic issues and developments relevant to the Philippines.
Dr. Mizanur Rahman received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in accounting from the University of Dhaka. His professional engagements have included many consultancies with international organizations. Mizan has widely published in international journals and he often appears in electronic media and writes op-eds in print media on issues of public policy relevance. In January 2010, the Global Development Network (GDN) awarded Dr. Rahman the Luxembourg Ministry of Finance First Prize for his outstanding research on development under the theme of “Regional Integration–Convergence Big Time, or, an Opportunity Wasted.”
Edward completed his undergraduate education at Makerere University majoring in Quantative Economics. He joined the Bank of Uganda in May 2004. He started in the Research Department but switched to the Communications Department in 2011. After obtaining his Masters degree in Public Policy from GRIPS in September 2012 he returned to the Bank of Uganda where he served as Head of the Economist Section until his appointment as Assistant Director & Head of Corporate Affairs, Communications Department in September 2013.
After graduating from the Hanoi Foreign Trade University in 1999, Nguyen Duc Nhat joined the Ministry of Trade. During his six years at the Ministry Nhat was involved in several high-level trade negotiations, including on the accession to the WTO. In 2005, he left the Ministry to become one of the founding members of Depocen, the first non-state research centre in Vietnam. Building upon prior experience Nhat established VietSurvey Research and Analysis in 2011 which has now become one of Vietnam’s leading independent research institutes on micro data and development studies. As Chairman of the Board and team leader of the governance team, Nhat has extensively designed and implemented high profile research on governance and integrity in Vietnam. Nhat is expected to receive his Ph.D. in Economics from the Université Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne in August 2014.
Koji Fukuda graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in environmental science from The University of Arizona in 2002. After gaining his first work experience as Environmental Education Officer under JICA’s Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers at the Marshall Islands, Koji enrolled in the IDS program at GRIPS in 2005. His program included a 5-month internship at ADB’s headquarters in Manila. Upon graduating from GRIPS, Koji briefly worked for a consulting firm before taking up a position as Policy Researcher in the Climate Change Group at the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) in 2008. In April 2013, he moved to Nairobi, Kenya, to start working for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as Regional Programme Specialist in the UN-REDD Programme.
Hannah completed her undergraduate education at the University of Canterbury and Victoria University of Wellington majoring in both Political Science and Gender and Women’s Studies. After finishing a successful internship with the Ministry of Social Development in October 2007, Hannah was offered a job as policy analyst in the Department of Labour where she began working in the field of border management and security. During her studies at GRIPS her focus area was on the role of governance institutions to foster global security. After obtaining her Masters degree in Public Policy in September 2012 she returned to Wellington and was appointed Senior Policy Analyst at New Zealand Customs.
Aidar started his career as attache of the Department of Bilateral Cooperation with the Russian Federation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1999. He held various positions within MoFA – including a posting to the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Japan – before taking up a position as lawyer in the National Company KazMunayGas JSC, Kazakhstan’s state-owned oil and gas company, in 2005. In 2010, Aidar moved to the Ministry of Oil and Gas where he was appointed as a Deputy Director. He has been working as Corporate Secretary of KazMunaiGas Exploration & Production JSC since August 2013.
Ashhad Jawwad joined the civil service of Pakistan as a Customs Officer 17 years ago. Since then he has served at various middle and senior management levels in the Customs Department, both at the operational and policy levels. At middle management positions Ashhad has supervised customs clearance processing of commercial cargo at Karachi port. He also served in the Sales Tax field formation, which used to be a part of the Customs organization till 2008. After he got promoted to a Senior management position, Ashhad was posted at the policy headquarters of his organization where he has been working since 2009.
Mr. Lujun Sun started his career as official in charge of foreign exchange administration in Beijing in 1993. He was appointed Director-General of the Capital Account Management Department, State Administration of Foreign Exchange of China in August 2010. He is as such responsible for foreign exchange administration under capital account, researching and making policy on capital account convertibility of renminbi. Lujun Sun graduated with a Masters Degree in Economics from Renmin University of China in 1993. He completed his Masters in Public Policy at GRIPS in 2003.