Spring Meetings

Abdessalam Ould Mohamed Saleh is the Minister of Economy and Sustainable development of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania since July 2023, and previously Minister of Petroleum, Mines and Energy (2020-2023). He holds a postgraduate degree (DEA) in economics from the University of Paris I Panthéon- Sorbonne (France) and an International Degree in Public Administration from the National School of Administration (ENA) of Paris.  

Anta Ndoye has been serving as the Resident Representative for Mauritania in the Middle East and Central Asia Department of the IMF since May 2021. She worked previously as an economist on Saudi Arabia and Morocco, where she worked on several research projects on inclusive growth and financial inclusion. She also has prior experience as an advisor to the Ministry of Economy of Senegal and at Bruegel, a Brussels-based think tank. She holds a PHD from the University of Strasbourg and an Engineering degree in statistics from Toulouse School of Economics.

Joel A. Turkewitz is the Deputy Unit Chief in the IMF Legal Department at its headquarters in Washington DC, where he specializes in anticorruption and rule of law issues. In this capacity, Joel is involved in elaborating and operationalizing the Fund’s 2018 strengthened governance policy.  Joel joined the IMF recently after a 20-year career working with the World Bank on governance and anticorruption. He has worked and written on anticorruption approaches and experiences and has extensive country experience across Asia and Africa.

Rhoda Weeks-Brown is General Counsel and Director of the IMF’s Legal Department. She advises the IMF’s Executive Board, management, staff and country membership on all legal aspects of the IMF’s operations, including its lending, regulatory and advisory functions. Over her career at the IMF, she has led the Legal Department’s work on a wide range of significant policy and country matters. She has also lectured and written articles and many IMF Board papers on all aspects of the law of the IMF. Ms. Weeks-Brown has a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A. in Economics (summa cum laude) from Howard University.

El Hassen Zein is the Inspector General of State for Mauritania. Trained as an economic statistician, he has held senior positions in public administration over the past twenty years. In his current capacity of Inspector General of State, he oversees the implementation of the National Strategy for the Fight Against Corruption and the governance diagnostic.