David de Ferranti founded Results for Development Institute (R4D) in 2008 and was its first president and chief executive officer through August 2016. He is currently a senior advisor to R4D and he serves as chair of the board of directors. He also serves as member of R4D’s UK board of directors.
Before R4D, de Ferranti spent 25 years at the World Bank. As a senior manager there, he served as the Bank’s regional vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean at the World Bank, overseeing its work in that region, with responsibility for a $25 billion loan portfolio and a staff of 700 in 16 locations. Earlier, he headed the Bank’s work in the social sectors (nutrition, health, education, population, and social safety net and protection programs), overseeing research, policy work, and financial operations to countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe.
Prior to the Bank, de Ferranti was in the U.S. government, as the second-in-command of the 2,300 employee federal government agency responsible for the food and nutrition programs for low income households in the U.S. Before that, he spent 7 years at Rand, the think tank, leading policy research on US domestic programs.
In addition, he has been a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the United Nations Foundation, as well as a visiting professor at Harvard and Georgetown Universities. He has also been an advisor to numerous other organizations.
De Ferranti serves on the boards of numerous organizations, including the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (where he is its chair), The Micronutrient Initiative (where he is vice-chair), Synergos, and the Inter-American Dialogue. He spent ten years on the board of the Rockefeller Foundation, where he chaired the oversight of how its $4 billion endowment is invested.
He holds a PhD in economics from Princeton University, with an Outstanding Dissertation Award, and a BA from Yale University, Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude. He has written over 50 publications.
He and his wife, Margot, live near Washington, D.C. and have two grown children, a daughter and a son, and three grandchildren.
