Ex-Head of EBRD Appointed Consultant to President of Kazakhstan

Suma Chakrabarti has been appointed consultant to the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the president’s official website Akorda reports.

«By the order of the head of the state, Sir Suma Chakrabarti is appointed as a freelance consultant of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan on issues of economic development,» the message read.

Suma Chakrabarti was born in 1959 in India. He graduated from the University of Oxford (BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics) and the University of Sussex (MA in Development Economics).

Over the years, he had worked in the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. He occupied positions in the British Cabinet of Ministers, was responsible for creation of the central Performance and Innovations Unit under Prime Minister Tony Blair. Chakrabarti also served as Permanent Secretary of the Department for International Development, managing 1,200 staff members in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America.

From 2007 to 2012, he served as Permanent Secretary (most senior civil servant) of the Ministry of Justice of the United Kingdom. During that period, he also held office as Clerk of the Crown in the Chancery.

From 2012 to July 2020, Suma Chakrabarti served as president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). As a multilateral investment bank, the EBRD uses investment as a tool to build market economies and supports development in more than 30 countries from Central Europe to Central Asia.