Guntram Wolff will take over as director and CEO of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) on August 1, 2022. DGAP’s Board of Directors has appointed Wolff on the unanimous recommendation of its Academic Advisory Committee.
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Dr. Guntram B. Wolff is currently director of Bruegel, a Brussels-based institute on economic policy in Europe, and teaches at the Solvay School of Economics and Management of the Université Libre de Bruxelles. His research and publications focus on European political economy and governance, climate change and geoeconomics, as well as monetary and fiscal policy. Since becoming director of Bruegel in 2013, he has developed it into a leading global think tank.
Commenting on his new position as director and CEO of DGAP, Guntram Wolff said: “The Russian attack on Ukraine has made it abundantly clear that German and European foreign policy is facing massive changes. DGAP plays a central role in shaping the strategic debate in Germany and finding and assessing pertinent links among foreign, European, economic, climate, technology, and security policies. I look forward to working with my colleagues to formulate policy-relevant recommendations.”
DGAP President Tom Enders explains: “With Guntram Wolff, DGAP is gaining a renowned economist and experienced manager at its helm who will drive forward the networking of decision-makers in politics and business with think tanks and social stakeholders. His track record at Bruegel is very impressive. He will help DGAP continue on its path to becoming an internationally relevant think tank, further expanding the role and importance of DGAP as a leading foreign policy institution in Europe.”
Since 2013, Wolff has been speaking twice a year to the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN), the informal meeting of the EU’s finance ministers and central bank governors, on a wide variety of topics. In addition to teaching economics as a part-time professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and previously at the University of Pittsburgh, he regularly gives lectures at academic conferences and universities as well as to corporate boards and other key fora. His research has been published in academic journals such as Nature; Journal of European Public Policy; Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking; European Journal of Political Economy; Energy Policy; and Foreign Affairs. In 2020, Business Insider ranked him as one of the 28 most influential power players in Europe.
In 2021, Wolff was appointed to the G20 High Level Independent Panel (HLIP) on Financing the Global Commons for Pandemic Preparedness and Response. In 2018, then IMF managing director Christine Lagarde appointed him to the External Advisory Group on Surveillance, a group mandated to review the International Monetary Fund’s operational priorities through 2025. He previously served as a member of the French prime minister’s Conseil d’Analyse Economique from 2012 to 2016.
Wolff joined Bruegel from the European Commission, where he worked on euro area macroeconomics and euro area governance reform. He began his professional career in the research department of the Deutsche Bundesbank, which he joined after completing his PhD in economics at the University of Bonn.
