Michal Rutkowski
Dr.

Director, Human Development Department, Middle East and North Africa Region, The World Bank

Dr. Rutkowski is a former Director of the Office for Social Security Reform in the Government of Poland (1996-97) and a co-author of the design of the new Polish pension system. From 1998-2004, back in the World Bank, as Sector Manager for social protection, he led a team of professionals working on pensions, labor market and social assistance reforms in 28 countries of Central and Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union, as well as in Turkey. In October 2004 he became Sector Director for human development (education, health, nutrition, population, pensions, labor market, social assistance) in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region of the World Bank. On April 1. 2004, he moved to the equivalent position in the Middle East and North Africa Region (MNA).

For last 20 years plus, dr. Rutkowski, a labor economist by education, has worked extensively on pensions, labor, social protection and poverty issues in Europe, Middle East and China, as well as on fiscal and public sector management issues in Russia, Poland, Central Asia and Africa. He was among the co-authors of the first comprehensive summary of key welfare reform issues in transition economies, "Labor Markets and Social Policy in Central and Eastern Europe", (ed. by Nicholas Barr, Oxford University Press, 1994). In 1994-95 he was a member of the core team that wrote the World Development Report 1995: "Workers in an Integrating World". In 1996-97, on leave from the World Bank, he was Director of the Office for Social Security Reform of the Government of Poland where he led the team that prepared a comprehensive pension reform package "Security through Diversity", which was subsequently implemented. Afterwards, inter alia, he co-authored a study:"The Evolution of Pension Systems in Central and Eastern Europe" (with D. Lindeman and O. Sluchynskyy, World Bank 2000) and was one of the authors and editors of the book "Pension Reforms in Europe" (with R. Holzmann and M. Orenstein, Washington, 2003). He is also one of the authors of the new World Bank position paper on pensions "Old-Age Income Support in the 21st Century" (World Bank 2005, forthcoming).

Dr. Rutkowski studied at the Warsaw School of Economics (Ph.D. in economics, 1987) and the London School of Economics (post-graduate studies). Before joining the World Bank in 1990, he was an Associate Professor teaching Economics and doing research work in Labor Economics, Comparative Economics, and Macroeconomics in the Institute for Economic Policy of the Warsaw School of Economics. He also did research work in the Centre for Labour Economics and the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics. Dr. Rutkowski graduated from the Executive Development Program at the Harvard Business School (1999). He is a member of the European Economic Association, the American Association for Comparative Economic Studies, and the European Association of Labor Economists. He was also involved in interdisciplinary development endeavors as a member of the Polish Association for the Club of Rome and the British Association for the Club of Rome.