Spring Meetings

A passionate sponsor of innovative approaches to economic theory and practice, Francesco Luna’s research and publications revolve around computable economics and agent-based modeling.

Johannes Wiegand heads the Climate and Development Policies Division in the Strategy, Policy, and Review Department of the IMF and co-chairs the Fund’s Climate Advisory Group. He has also worked for many years in the IMF’s Research and European Departments. Johannes holds a Ph.D. from University College London. Before joining the Fund, he taught at the London School of Economics and wrote leaders for the Financial Times and Financial Times Deutschland.

Bert Kroese is the Chief Statistician, Data Officer, and Director of the Statistics Department at the IMF. Before joining the IMF, he worked for 25 years at Statistics Netherlands. He served in various expert, management, and director roles in the fields of methodology and economic statistics. He served as Deputy Director-General and CIO for IT and Innovation from 2013 to 2022, and as acting Director General in 2014 and 2020. Nationally and internationally, Mr. Kroese has been active in the fields of innovation and environmental-economic statistics. He chaired the UN Committee of Experts on Environmental-Economic Accounting (UNCEEA) for seven years and co-chaired the Executive Board of the High-Level Group for Modernization of Official Statistics (UNECE). In the context of the European Statistical System, he has been co-chair and deputy chair of several innovation-related taskforces. He was also a member of the strategy team of the Dutch National Artificial Intelligence Coalition. Mr. Kroese holds a Ph.D. (honors) in mathematical statistics from the University of Groningen.

John Lenahan is a Global Commercial Services Delivery Manager at the Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri). For over 20 years, Mr. Lenahan has been focusing on using location to help organizations better understand today’s challenges and the opportunities they can pursue. His goal is to help leaders understand the role GIS and spatial technology can play and the value it can create.

Parisa Kamali is an Economist in the External Policy Division of the SPR Department. She is part of the team that works on the Trade Review paper, organizes the publications of the IMF Trade Monitor, contributes to IMF Blogs, and studies the impact of the recent rise in the shipping costs on trade flows. Her research focuses on trade, supply chains, and shipping costs. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Minnesota and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Dartmouth College.

Robin Koepke is an Economist in the External Policy Division of the Strategy Policy and Review Department. He brings experience as a desk economist on countries vulnerable to climate change. He also brings significant experience in creating real-time indicators to monitor key global economic trends. While working at the Institute of International Finance (IIF), he developed several innovative capital flows trackers that are now widely used among global central banks, on Wall Street and in the financial press. Robin holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Wuerzburg in Germany.

Alessandra Sozzi is a Data Analytics Officer in the IMF’s Statistics Department. She contributed to the development of the IMF Climate Change Indicators Dashboard and her research focuses on the use of big data and non-traditional data sources in the context of official statistics. Previously, she worked for the Office for National Statistics in the UK, and she was member of the Eurostat Task Force on Big Data (ESSnet Big Data). Alessandra holds a MSc in Data Science & Analytics from the Royal Holloway – University of London.

Kodiak Starr is a Product Designer in the IMF Creative Lab—a digital innovation team at the IMF, where he leads visual and UX design in support of the IMF brand and mission. Previously, Kodiak had the extreme privilege of serving as a Presidential Appointee as Creative Director of Digital Strategy at the White House.