Mr Ceda Ogada from Kenya has been named the Secretary of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Director of the Secretary’s Department.
The appointment was announced by Ms Kristalina Georgieva, the Managing Director of IMF on Wednesday.
Mr Ogada succeeds Mr Jianhai Lin, whose retirement was announced recently.
“Ceda has outstanding institutional knowledge, strategic and intellectual heft, and people leadership,” Georgieva said.
“His unparalleled ability to bring people together, combined with his profound appreciation of the Fund’s institutional history and legal principles, as well as strong service orientation, will help the Fund to even more effectively serve our member countries in a very challenging economic environment,” she continued.
Mr Ogada joined the IMF’s Legal Department in 1999 and rose through the ranks to become Deputy General Counsel in 2014.
During the time, he has worked on virtually all aspects of the Fund’s work, including advising on the governance of the Fund, on country operations, helping to develop fund policies and implementation guidance, and providing technical assistance to member countries.
Before joining the Fund, Ceda Ogada worked at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development as a legal expert, and before that he was in private legal practice in the United States.
He holds a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School and a B.A. in history from Dartmouth College.