Moisés Naím, Founder and Chairman

Moisés Naím is the founder and chairman of the board of the Group of Fifty, senior associate of the international economics program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and chief international columnist for El País, Spain’s largest newspaper.

In April 2011 he was awarded the Ortega y Gasset prize, the most prestigious award in Spanish journalism. Dr. Naím was named most outstanding professional thanks to his independence and the enormous strength and analytical capability of his weekly columns which, according to the jury are an essential reference in the Spanish language.

Dr. Naím has written extensively on international economics and global politics, economic development and the unintended consequences of globalization. He has authored or edited numerous books and his most recent, Illicit: How Smugglers Traffickers and Copycats are Hijacking the Global Economy, was published in 18 languages. A National Geographic/PBS documentary film based on Illicit won a 2009 Emmy award. His weekly column is also published by Italy’s La Repubblica and Brazil’s Folha de São Paulo and reprinted by over 40 publications in Latin America. Dr. Naím’s articles have also appeared in The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Time, Foreign Policy and Foreign Affairs. He is a frequent speaker at major international conferences, including, since 1990, the Davos annual meetings of the World Economic Forum.

Before joining the Carnegie Endowment, Dr. Naím was the editor in chief of Foreign Policy magazine. Under his 14 year leadership, the magazine was re-launched, won the National Magazine award for General Excellence three times and became one of the world’s most influential publications in international affairs. Dr. Naím’s public service includes his tenure as Venezuela’s Minister of Trade and Industry in the early 1990s, director of Venezuela’s Central Bank and executive director of the World Bank. His academic work includes positions as professor of business and economics and dean of the Venezuela’s main business school, the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración (IESA) in Caracas.

Dr. Naím is also chairman of the board of Population Action International and a member of the board of directors of the National Endowment for Democracy and the International Crisis Group.

For more information about Dr. Naím, you may visit his website at www.moisesnaim.com or follow him on Twitter @moisesnaim.